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.