Last night, my 26 year-old son, home from a Miami Ad School gig with Crispen Porter Bulgoski told me that he was reviewing the Xbox 360 games I had been playing in my man cave in the basement.  I have to admit, I go in an out of mild addiction to video games.  He proceeded to tell me that I was missing some of the most highly rated games.

Then he asked me if I knew what E3 was.  To which I said of course I do (I didn’t).  Then he proceeded to tell me that Blizzard Activision was coming out with some outstanding games and that EA Sports had totally ruined the NCAA 2K basketball series by coming out with a boring 2K nine version.  He told me that he totally opposed the practice of EA buying up franchises so that other game makers couldn’t improve on the games.

Whoa…too much information about video games.  I thought he was supposed to be learning how to be a great copywriter.  But it did give me inspiration for this post.

My son’s pretty normal.  Or at least as normal as anybody who wants to be an advertising copywriter.  When he’s interested in something he spends time researching about the product and what people are saying about it.  While he looks to opinion leader, when he publishes ratings he becomes an opinion leader.  And when he discovers a great product, he’s more apt to broadcast his opinion.  Likewise, when he gets burned by a bad product, he gets even.

I really don’t know much about EA Sports strategies.  But I do know that they have an image issue with gamers…at least one anyway…that will affect their sales to some extent.

The time Net Geners spend scrutinizing their next purchase should cause all marketers to develop strategies to deal with both positive and negative reviews.  If you don’t join the conversation, your ears will ring with this audience talking behind your back.  That said, if your policies offend them, if your product doesn’t meet their expectations, or if it’s just a product that doesn’t perform, no amount of conversation will change their opinion.

Some experts quoted in “Grown Up Digital,” say we taught them that they are special.  They believed it.  Not only did they believe it they internalized it to the point where they have no doubts.  Well that’s one explanation.

Other experts have said, this is the most narcissistic generation ever.  It’s all about ME.  They have been pampered in an attempt to raise their self esteem to the point where the only thing that has been raised is their self centeredness.  That’s another explanation.

My explanation is “non of the above.”  Customization is important to them simply because it is basic human nature and technology has made it easy.  Brands have always been an expression of who we thought we were, or who we wanted to be.  Now, we can customize our brands to reflect the nuances of who we think we are.   Contrary to an ever increasing number of “expert opinions,” there’s nothing new about this customization trend.

Customization is as old as the caveman.  Not the Geico cavemen, but the ones that used to draw on the walls of caves.

If you’re old enough, think back to the days of muscle cars.  The gear-heads of my generation bought mag wheels for their Chevy Nova, souped up the motor, added pin-striping and went looking for girls.  The gas crisis hit and that genre of car vanished and the trend toward hot rods waned.  Still, everybody who owned one looks back fondly on their car and how it made them feel.  Somehow a Toyota Celica never replaced that feeling.

Fast forward.  Technological advances allow you to customize nearly everything.  One size fits all evolves to one size fits one.  The iPod allows you to program your own radio station.  Pandora.com programs your own radio station on the web and on the fly.  Because there are so many choices for everything, you can put your own persona together.  And why wouldn’t you?

Do you know the personas of your customers?  Do you know how your product or service adds to, or defines their personas?  If you blindly market without that understanding, it’s a craps game and you’re just playing the odds.  And the one thing to remember about a craps game is that they didn’t build all those casinos in Vegas on winners.

DES MOINES — The American Advertising Federation has given its top award, a Gold ADDY, to What Town is Next, a multi-media campaign developed by ZLRIGNITION for the Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH) Division of Tobacco Use Prevention and Control and its teen-led tobacco counter-marketing organization, Just Eliminate Lies (JEL).

The What Town is Next Campaign drew attention to daily death toll from tobacco use in the U.S. by comparing the death toll to the loss of an entire town of 1,200 people every day. The winning campaign combined the use of social media strategies including video on YouTube and blog posts with outdoor advertising, street marketing, outdoor, newspaper and television advertising, as well as public relations. The TV spots showed icons in small towns that were suddenly deserted.

The campaign, which earned Best of Class honors at the local ADDY competition and a regional gold, was one of 50,000 entries in the national ADDY competition and among only 100 that were selected for a Gold ADDY Award.

“This campaign delivered a compelling message to teens about the dangers of tobacco use and served up a powerful case for teens to resist pressure to smoke,” says Bonnie Mapes, administrator of the IDPH Tobacco Use Prevention and Control Division.

“The fact that our work has been judged to be among the country’s best communications is a source of pride, but even more rewarding is the fact that our work has contributed to a 33 percent reduction in teen smoking,” adds Louis Laurent, president and CEO of ZLRIGNITION.

JEL activities and other tobacco use prevention and control activities are funded by the State of Iowa from the Master Settlement Agreement with the tobacco industry, and are administered by the Iowa Department of Public Health.

ZLRIGNITION is a full-service marketing communications agency with offices in Des Moines and Kansas City. The agency provides a wide range of information-based marketing creative, media, interactive and public relations services to national, regional and local clients.

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The Net Generation has grown up with an ever expanding choice of products and services that results from the availability of products that the internet provides to consumers everywhere.  So they can buy a funky tee shirt from Des Moines, or a $300 designer brand few have heard of from Florence, Italy all from their desk top…even their phone.

If the Net Generation wants it, they Google it.  If your store doesn’t show up, too bad.   It’s easy for this kind of thinking to keep you up at night.

Here’s a generation that on the one hand has taken “belonging” to an entirely different level with thousands and thousands of social networks, yet expresses a need for extreme individualism when it comes to product choice.  They customize thier iPod, skin their Dell and trick out their Mazda to express themselves in ways only they can.

In the end, despite all the prognostication, Net Gen gravitates toward hub brands.  The iPod and iPhone still reigns supreme, they still watch American Idol despite having 200 channels to choose from and yet they may buy a download from a band so obscure that the band doesn’t even know its name.

As a marketer to the Net Generation, you have a choice.  Be a hub brand, or find away to prosper being an obscurity.  Both are possible.  Both fit with freedom of choice.  Pick your strategy and execute it flawlessly and you’ll do fine.