This 2006 viral marketing research is in two parts – a survey of consumers about perceptions on viral marketing and a survey of viral specialists. It was commissioned by Kontraband who run a viral ad network and seem to specialise in video clip style viral.

My summary of the consumer viral research is:

• High awareness of viral emails amongst consumers (73%)
• Only 38% say they forward virals, suggesting that the majority don’t want to be seen as spamming our friends and colleagues
• 64% say they would not forward a viral with an explicit branding / product message
• High level of concern about data capture before viewing such material (65% very or fairly concerned) showing that this will stop the spread and the best option is to offer an additional incentive that may appear to some
• Research seeks to compare to banner ads – asking about frequency of clicking. 40% say they never click on a banner ad and 32% say they will rarely click on a banner. However, this ignores the branding affect of banners

The industry commentators give some examples of viral and review trends in user generated content and advergames which are the main viral trends. They also talk about the key failings of brands in viral which concerns striking the delicate balance between viral cut-through and the link to the brand.

For me, the best type of virals which can be applied to many types of brands aren't typically video clips, but are just great content such as articles that SEOs call linkbait - they are so useful that everyone blogs about them, or they provide a greate interactive experience such as the award winning, but now sadly finished Mini Aveaword campaign.