Syd Lexia wrote:

With the economy stagnation showing no signs of relenting, companies will cut internet advertising expenditures, opting instead for viral campaigns.

I doubt it. First of all viral campaigns only make up a tiny amount of all advertising. The effect that even a sizeable increase in viral marketing will have on traditional online advertising should be small.

Secondly Internet advertising has been a huge growth market for the last years. The economic crisis will slow this down, but the shift in advertising from old media to new media isn't going to stop. As long as the number of Internet users increases, advertising will too. This varies from product to product of course. Internet advertising is better suited for some, less so for others. But in general I'd expect online advertising to be less affected by the current situation than advertising in traditional media, because it still has greater growth potential. The crisis will keep the market from realizing that potential as fast as it normally would, but even if it only grows by 10% instead of 25%, that's still pretty good. Online businesses should do comparatively well.