How effective is viral advertising?

Hi

I would like to know your opinions on how effective you think viral advertisng is, I am a Media Studies student and am undertaking primary research.

Many thanks

when advertising gets virally transmitted it becomes more effective.  however this isn't the same as planning 'some viral' which in my experience tends not to work as people have got pretty fussy about what they send to their friends and the output of a brand rarely figures these days...

cadbury gorilla got virally transmitted but it wasn't a viral ad.  most things created as 'virals' never get sent from anyone to anyone (except maybe some staff at the (ir)responsible agency).

 as an esteemed former colleague said - viral is a verb not a noun!

"Viral is a verb not a noun!"

 Or an adjective, even.

There's a lot of crap talked about 'virals'; especially about how they can't be TV ads or they won't get passed on. Boll***s! as VW might say. 

People - apart from a few nerds with axes to grind about 'advertising' - will pass on anything they think is funny. Just look at any top ten viral list of all time and you'll see it's full of tv ads, with branding and everything; John West Salmon, Ford Ka, Mastercard 'doorbell' Priceless, Trojan Games, and of course the recent Cadbury's gorilla ad.  

Ignore the Star wars geeks living in their parents' basements; despite the fact they want to believe they are now running the world to new rules, the same fundamentals apply: make something interesting or funny or both, and people will watch it and send it to their friends.

Don't expect it to sell anything though.