I’d been working as a production manager and had become a bit jaded with traditional advertising.

It was fun to learn, but not as much fun to execute. The process seemed long, boring, locked down. I’d seen some great viral films, and they all seemed to be coming out of the same company.

It was clear that this type of digital advertising was growing. I kept hassling The Viral Factory to give me a job and in 2004 they finally did. I joined as a producer and was made Head of Production 18 months later.

Viral is something that happens rather than something that is. Only when something spreads does it become viral. Basically, it’s a multiplication – I tell one person, they tell four people etc. It’s a spread.

Great viral campaigns should entertain, engage and elicit a positive response, on a global level if possible. TV is a passive medium. Online, you’re watching because you want to and often you can choose to comment on it, positively or negatively. We want our audience to enjoy and engage with our films, post them on Twitter, Facebook, blogs. That’s when the spread begins.

The internet isn’t just something we do when we come to work. We live and breathe it. That’s why we’re here. We love how it’s changing the world. The internet belongs to the audience. It’s their space, and we respect that.

They don’t have to watch what you put out and they don’t have to like it. And they can feed back really quickly if they don’t. Virals can backfire. If you wade into someone’s space in a way that is not appropriate then you can really put your foot in it!

Every day hundreds of thousands of videos are uploaded to YouTube – that’s what we’re competing against. But we have a brand attached, and people are suspicious of brands. So we have to be entertaining and a bit different. If you get the tone wrong, the audience can smell a rat.

Traditional advertising is usually shot on film or high-end video. We shoot on whatever the job asks for. If we feel it has to be shot on a phone, then we’ll do it. Some jobs are completely improvised, the only things that would be clear would be the concept and the post elements, and then just let the non-actors [see below] get on with it.

The Remington campaign [below] was set up as a proper fashion show, we didn’t tell anyone in the audience, and then filmed their reactions. Essentially this was a live event. We only had one go at it.

There are other viral successes out there, but we try and do them one after the other. If we don’t get more than a million hits, we’re disappointed. Good numbers for us are three to five million. Once or twice a year we’ll get a plus 10 million. Then we know we’re really onto something!

Jon Stopp was talking to Gus Alvarez.

To see more of The Viral Factory’s work, go to http://www.theviralfactory.com.