There are certainly many changes occurring constantly with how virals are constructed. They need to evolve with the people who get’s tricked by them, basically to keep up with the modern world’s pace.
What was a good idea a month ago, could now be obsolete, and easy to find out. Some, long time ago, all it took was a simple “name matching” quiz, and it spread like a virus. Right now the age lowers and lowers, way beyond the point of the buying consumers. Sure, they can nag their parents to buy stuff, but that still cut’s off a couple of %.
So I think it’s pretty safe to assume that the same campaign in order to work over and over again has to either:
a) Attract younger and younger targets as their understanding of the world evolves.
b) Attract people who are not yet used to the internet (new users).
So is there an end to viral marketing? When we reach the point where most of the consumers will KNOW that they’re seeing a viral? And would they care enough to stop the spread?
Sure we can jump over ourselves a couple more times regarding the stuff we come up with, but at some point it might end up being “the impressive looking ad” and not a cool viral anymore. And thus it will make it less likely to succeed. More coming.