Viral Marketing - Ricardian

Viral marketing is a term that I’m sure many people are not too sure about, viral marketing is a phenomenon which facilitates and encourages people to pass along a marketing message through word of mouth or through another social medium. Viral marketing first started to become a more viable marketing tool in the 1990s.

 You are probably exposed to viral marketing everyday without even realising it. In order for viral marketing to work efficiently, the medium that carries your marketing message must be easy to transfer and replicate. One of the best examples of this is the viral marketing campaign created by the Hotmail email service. Hotmail advertise that you can get an email account for free with them and without you knowing at the end of every email that you send they attach "Get your private, free email at http://www.hotmail.com". This is their job done because they can now rely on you to advertise Hotmail every time that you send an email, which will result in more people getting Hotmail email accounts.

 The most recent use of viral marketing is the “Kony 2012” video, which was uploaded onto YouTube on the 5^th of March 2012. “Kony 2012” was uploaded by Jason Russell with the intention of around twenty thousand people actually watching the video. However, this video has already amassed more than eighty seven and a half million views, which is a phenomenal achievement in such a short space of time. However, unlike a lot of viral marketing campaigns before “Kony 2012” such as “Ronaldinho: Touch of Gold (Nike)”, “Kony 2012” was more than just a video. During the video, the main message about Joseph Kony - the Ugandan warlord - was put across to everyone watching the video, but we were also told about how we could order the “Kony 2012” action packs, which includes a T-shirt, a bracelet, stickers, posters, a button and an action guide. If people wear the t shirt and bracelet or put up the posters up then the message from the video is being spread even further, without the person who came up with the idea having to spend more money since the packs cost money to buy, but their message is still being put across to more people. “Kony 2012” took viral marketing to a whole new level because the marketing did not stop there, because another event called “Paint the Night” has been set up, where people will cover towns and cities all over the world ranging from London to Sydney with posters of Joseph Kony in order to spread the message further. However, Jason Russell could not possibly organise “Paint the Night” all over the world, so he left it up to the people watching the video to set up the events and make a group. However, the marketing campaign was not finished there, after the “Kony 2012” video, Jason Russell appeared on news shows all over the world so that he could spread his message more. Albeit that the enthusiasm for “Kony 2012” has now died down with most people, this is still an excellent example of how viral marketing can be used to get a message across very quickly, without the cost of advertising between television shows because it costs very little or nothing to put something onto the internet.

Viral marketing has been made a lot easier with the internet becoming more and more a part of everyday life for a lot of people. Another excellent example of viral marketing is when Threshers leaked a forty percent off voucher on the internet in 2006. This would have been very successful no matter when it was released during the year, however, it was released just before Christmas, which put it in even more demand. The voucher spread through social media website, blogs and email, this shows how prominent social media websites are becoming with regard to viral marketing. Threshers obviously underestimated the effects that viral marketing can have, soon after the voucher had been released a company spokesperson said “It was never intended to get this big”. The people behind “Kony 2012” realised the potential that viral marketing has and made sure that they made the most of it by learning from previous campaigns.

By looking at these few examples, it is safe to say that viral marketing can be a very powerful and effective marketing tool because it can allow the scale of the audience to increase very quickly with very little effort from the person who started the campaign. However, for a viral marketing campaign to be successful there needs to be something that people can gain from it and it must be easy for people to pass on the message to other people via other mediums such as social networking websites. Due to the success that a lot of viral marketing campaigns have had I do not think it will be long before more companies use viral marketing in order to advertise their products or services.

Crowdfunding Football - The Economist

England is well known for its love of football and having some of the best fans in the world. Unlike many countries, big crowds turn out throughout the leagues week in and week out. The majority of the best clubs in England are sadly owned by foreign investors because they have the vast wealth needed to bank roll these type of business ventures. Portsmouth were relegated from the premiership in 2010 whilst in administration and have hit administration again and are joining League One in September.

A new scheme has been devised by the "Pompey Supporter's Trust", which is relatively unheard of in English football. They are proposing that every fan puts £100 into an escrow account and if enough people do so a community share scheme will be set up. When asked how much they would be willing to give people replies with £1000 or as much as they could afford, which is a sizeable sum.

Mo Tamweer - Is the bubble in China sustainable?

This was a very well prepared talk and one of the best this year. He had a hard job to consolidate everything in about 1 hour 15 minutes.

He started by saying that China has recently overtaken Japan in having the second largest economy in the world. China have had exceptional growth rates in recent years at about 10% and are aiming for a 7.5% growth rate in 2012. However, China have spent a lot on infrastructure such as high speed rail. They have not had the response to it from the public that they would have hoped for, but are still hoping to put 20,000 km worth of track down, which is half of the circumference of the earth. These large projects have caused large districts with electricity and full plumbing to be totally unoccupied. 99% of China's largest shopping centre is empty, which shows that the problem that China are having. They have got an ageing population who are not contributing to the country's GDP like they used to. China have recently opened a terminal 3 at an airport which is bigger than Heathrow and they are aiming to make the largest airport in the world the size of Bermuda and will have 9 runways.

China are a large coal user and are self sufficient at the moment but are turning more to needing to import. China have started to export their high speed tail services after the world has seen that they have done it to a decent standard. China are still classed as a developing country, however, they are polluting as much as some developed countries in the world. China have put most of their infrastructure in the East and can now expand into the west. China have the potential to be a very large consumer driven economy of they use their middle class potential for the more luxury items. China is under the stereotype of 1000s of clothing factories, however, they have moved on and that now makes up 10% of their production.

China work on 5 year plans and are now on their 12th. When you compare charts with how Japan was before the lost decade and China, there are many similarities. The only difference is that China recognise this and are working to stop the same sort of crash. It is inevitable that China's growth will level out at about 2% or 3% in the future. The main thing that the Chinese government will be worrying about is making sure that China gradually reduce their GDP and do not suddenly crash.

Freefall: Free markets and the sinking of the global economy - Joseph Stiglitz

Joseph Stiglitz is a renowned economist who is the former chief economist at the world bank. Freefall analyses the main problems, which caused the recession in 2008. Many people including Joseph Stiglitz warned of what was to come in 2008, however, they were all ignored because the governments believed/wanted to believe that the markets would correct themselves. The last time America experienced a recession like this was in the 1930s after the Wall Street crash in 1929.

When reading Freefall, it soon becomes apparent that Stiglitz wants everyone to know that he warned the governments. It is very obvious that Stiglitz is not Larry Summers' biggest fan who is now the chief economic adviser to Obama. Furthermore, Stiglitz ridicules Bush's choice to give tax breaks to the rich. Stiglitz says that George Bush's delay on providing the stimulus was incredibly costly. On page 59, he says "Economic policies take months to be fully effective. It is therefore imperative to get money into the economy quickly". He makes 7 points that need to be in the stimulus: 1. It should be fast, 2. It should be effective, 3. It should address the country's long term problems, 4. It should focus on investment, 5. It should be fair, 6. It should deal with the short run exigencies created by the crisis, 7. The stimulus should be targeted at areas of job loss.

A big message that Stiglitz is trying to get through is that we cannot afford to have another crisis like 2008, we must learn from our mistakes and not ignore the advice that we were given from people like him about a decade ago. In this book, Stiglitz is saying that the imbalance between people owing money and people lending money needs to be corrected because there could easily be another bubble just waiting to burst again.

Headstart Careers - BlackRock

BlackRock is the world's largest asset manager with more than $3.6 trillion under their management. The talk that we had at the start was very impressive and showed us the different types of jobs that were on offer at BlackRock such as global investment management, risk management and advising clients that range from individual investors to some of the world's largest institutions. We were told that you did not need a specific degree to get a job at BlackRock, however, the best approach was to look for an internship with BlackRock over the summer, which acts as an interview effectively. The networking session at the end was really useful in finding out how people went about getting a job at BlackRock. The majority of the people that we spoke to had perviously done an internship with BlackRock. One of the most noticeable things about BlackRock was the friendly atmosphere, which I found very appealing.

Headstart Careers - Ernst & Young

Ernst & Young is one of the largest professional firms in the world and with Headstart Careers I visited their London headquarters, which is their main base. We were told about various opportunities which they offer such as Insight Day (1 day), EY Scholarship (3 years and runs alongside a degree and payed placement during the summer), EY Degree (4 years) and EY School Leaver (5 years). In order to stand a good chance of getting one of these opportunities, particularly the latter, you must have at least 300 UCAS points (BBB). There is an online application to fill out and the website is www.ey.com/uk/careers or email eyschools@uk.ey.com. We then got taught more about interview techniques such as: asking questions to show interest, mirror body language, do your research beforehand, make sure your message is clear and don't talk to them, build a conversation

Economist - Over to you, George

Last Monday, a credit rating agency threatened to strip Britain of their AAA rating. This was expected because in 2010 S&P (credit rating agency) gave Britain a 'negative outlook', however, they reverted back to stable. There was some positive news because it was announced that inflation fell to 3.6% in January from 4.2% in December. There was more bad news though because unemployment rose to 8.4% in the three months up to December, which is not good news for a country trying to grow. However, there is evidence that there is a trade off between unemployment and inflation in the short run, which suggests that when unemployment is low in an economy, there is a higher rate of inflation (this has not been proved in the long run though).

The best antidote for unemployment is growth, however, times do not look very prosperous when talking about growth. There are some things that will affect future growth, which the Bank of England cannot influence in any way such as Euro-area distress. Mervyn King has said that the MPC has its limits and that if George Osborne wants growth then he must do something about the situation himself

LSE Conference 2012 - Metro Bank

Metro Bank is Britain's first high street store in over 100 years. The entrepreneur behind this idea is Anthony Tompkinson. Metro Bank does not want to be seen to be like other banks because it is open 7 days a week until 8, which is very different to the banks that we know. Their staff work in two different shifts, which is why they can work such long hours. Metro Bank have a different ethos to other banks, because their main focus is on customer service. For instance, they allow dogs in store, so that people feel more welcome. When you join Metro Bank you will get an account within 15 minutes with a debit card. This is a very different view on banking, however, it seems to be popular with people. Metro Bank received a 94% satisfaction rating, whereas Santander received a 67% dissatisfaction rating.

The money for the start of Metro Bank was raised, however, on the Monday after Lehman's Brothers collapsed and Metro Bank lost about £65 million of its funding, which was a major setback for them.

Metro Bank are unique from other high street banks because they act more like a retailer and want to be seen more like a retailer. Their emphasis is on customer satisfaction, which is contrary to how a lot of high street banks work. Their employees get their bonuses for how helpful a customer has deemed them NOT for how much money they have made for Metro Bank. I think that this is a very interesting concept, which was copied from an American bank, which proves to be very successful. People asked whether Metro Bank had to change their model for the British because Americans do not always want the same things, however, Metro Bank has changed nothing in 18 months and is proving to be very successful.

More on conference to come

Headstart Careers - Goldman Sachs

Went to Goldman Sachs for a Headstart career course, it was very interesting and showed how there are lots of roles at Goldman Sachs that are not all finance based. They showed us the best way to get on to the scholarship programmes, which are listed on their website. We then got given advice on how best to fill in job application forms and the the Dos and Don'ts of a job interview. One of the most appealing of working for Goldman Sachs would definitely be the travel opportunities, which they very much encourage you to do. Goldman Sachs are not interested in purely finance degrees, they are after a much broader range of degrees because they will give you the necessary training. For example, one of their most recent researchers did a biology based degree, which I was amazed at because I was under the illusion that to work in this industry you had to have a finance degree.

Who Cares? - Richard Walker

This is a short book, however, it is very concise and helps to explain our current banking system. His analysis shows that we are capable of avoiding another banking crisis. This book gives a new aspect to look at the financial world from how everything started to how it is now. Throughout the book, Walker is giving an alternative to the system that western governments have chosen so far. This book does not give you the answer to anything, however, it gives you the facts and lets you decide for yourself.