I’m still new to Portland, so there are lots and lots of ad people I have yet to meet in person. Jerry Ketel is one. Dan Wieden is another. I could actually fill a spreadsheet with all the movers and shakers working in Portland’s creative industries that I’d like to meet.
One of the gents who would surely be on such a document is Eric Anderson of White Horse. Anderson is an academic working in digital marketing. He’s writing a book called Surviving the Customer: Game Theory and the Emergence of Social Media.
Here’s an excerpt from his book proposal:
To understand why social media marketing is emerging now and how marketers can transform it into a sustainable resource, we need to look outside the marketing echo chamber to the rich body of work on adverserial relationships developed by the science of game theory. Originally used to help guide nuclear brinksmanship policy during the Cold War, game theory gives us powerful tools to analyze how the traditional “zero-sum game” of marketing has evolved toward cooperation.
Equal parts analysis, manifesto, and hands-on guide, this book will examine all facets of the social media experience through the lens of fascinating game theory concepts like the Prisoner’s Dilemma and the Nash Equilibrium. Marketers , culture hounds, and media gurus alike will emerge with a new understanding of and hope for the potential transformation in the way marketers and consumers talk to each other.
Did I mention that they put smart pills in the water here? Yep, it’s been a city of Portland regulation since way back.
