The HUB: Exchange of Ideas.

The HUB looks like a magazine and reads like a magazine. But it is much more than just another magazine. It is a place where the best, brightest and boldest in marketing — clients and agencies alike — can exchange their best thinking.

It is a platform that is as intelligent, inquisitive and innovative as you are, that is built on the belief that insights, ideas and innovation are the ultimate drivers of growth in marketing. It is written for — and read by — a carefully identified community of about 3,000 senior-level executives on at top corporate marketing departments and agencies.

The HUB is an exchange of ideas … both in terms of "give-and-take" discussion, as well as an exchange in the sense of a marketplace (like the Stock Exchange).

Our premise is this: Marketing is the business of ideas. Like any business, it has buyers (clients) and sellers (agencies). As an exchange of ideas, the HUB is a place where ideas are presented, discussed, explored, changed, accepted or rejected, bought and sold.

Launched in July 2004, and published bi-monthly, the HUB is published by David X Manners Company Inc., and brought to you by the editors of Reveries.com and Cool News of the Day. ...

Tim Manners
Editor & Publisher

Download The HUB Magazine, January/February 2008

PDF format, 3.6MB, 40pages.

The entire Jan/Feb ‘08 issue of The Hub magazine (40 pages), centered on innovation, including an interview with Dee Mc Laughlin of Virgin Entertainment and 13 other articles.

Tower Records is out of business and much of the rest of the record industry is flat on its back. But it’s quite a different story at Virgin Megastores in North America, where marketing chief Dee Mc Laughlin fills the room with the ring of success.

“Our stats are through the roof, double digits, every day,” she reports. “Board meetings are very happy occasions … we just keep pushing on through.” It’s true. As of late December 2007, Virgin’s same-store sales were up a remarkable 14 percent for the year — gaining sales at nearly the same rate that the record business was losing sales. How is that possible? Dee Mc Laughlin explains it in just four syllables: Innovation.

“It literally is that simple,” says Dee. “Innovation is about creating an environment, and the Virgin environment is all about encouraging creative thinking. I never would have lasted here if I didn’t embrace innovation.”

Dee’s journey at Virgin has lasted nearly ten years, so far, and follows a career as an entertainment magazine editor and writer with the likes of Rolling Stone and L.A. Weekly. The CEO of Virgin USA had gotten Dee’s name from mutual friends and just rang her up one day. Life is like that sometimes (though certainly not often enough).

That phone call led to an offer to launch Virgin’s website, running its online magazine as well as its marketing. Dee transitioned over to marketing both offline and online about a year later. After rising steadily up the ranks, she was named Virgin Entertainment’s top marketing officer in mid-2007. It’s a big job, but Dee says her mission couldn’t be more focused.

“It’s about coming up with easier ways to give our customers what they want,” she says. ...

Visit The HUB Magazine Official Website

Blue Skies Ahead:

Talking about innovation is kind of like the marketing equivalent of talking about the weather.

You know the old joke: Everybody talks about the weather but nobody ever does anything about it. So, how’s the weather? Well, it’s partly Apple today, with a chance of some light P&G in the afternoon and some scattered Google toward morning. Don’t forget your focus groups! We all love to talk about Apple, Google and Procter & Gamble because they’re great companies whose people don’t just talk about innovation.

They live it, breathe it and are making it happen as we speak … on our iPhones … at our focus groups. Apple, Google and P&G make it look so easy.

Even like fun. Well, maybe it is! Dee Mc Laughlin of Virgin Entertainment says innovation is, in fact, simple. It’s just a matter of observing your customers and improving their experiences (page 20).

Charlie Tarzian of CoActive Marketing Group agrees with Dee. His paragon of simplicity in innovation is Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton (page 36).

Rodney Mason of Hawkeye says innovation is wherever you can build customer trust (page 5).

Al Wittemen of Tracy Locke says innovation is where your shoppers are (page 18). Dori Molitor of WomanWise says innovation is like hearing Jimi Hendrix (page 10).

Innovation is indeed a bit like the weather. Variable, unpredictable, stormy and beautiful. It’s blue skies and lightning bolts, downpours and beams of light. The difference is, we can do something about innovation. And that’s what this issue of The Hub is all about.

Tim Manners, Editor-in-Chief

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