Creativity.  Culture. Commerce.

Three simple words stand at the heart of VCU Brandcenter in Richmond, Virginia.  For the second year in a row, I had the amazing honor to spend 3 days at the VCU Brandcenter last week as a guest for their Board of Directors meeting.  It was a chance to interact and learn from true luminaries in the marketing industry including board members such as:

• Joseph McCarthy, CEO – Publicis
• Mike Hughes, President / Creative Director -  The Martin Agency
• Jon Kamen, CEO / Founder – @Radical Media
• Rick Webb, Co-founder – Barbarian Group

Needless to say, I was a bit awed by the talent that surrounded me the past few days.  I have to give special thanks to board member Elizabeth Talerman for first inviting me to learn more about the Brandcenter.

But I also need to thank the staff and students of VCU Brandcenter on behalf of the entire marketing industry.  That may seem odd, but hear me out.  We all know that the marketing industry is undergoing tremendous change.  But despite this fact, our industry has, for the most part, yet to fully embrace the change with meaningful, fundamental shifts in how we structure our business.  On many brands, you still see a divide between strategy and execution.  And on others, you see the marketing budget split so many times between different agencies that is nearly impossible to get a campaign that feels “holistic.”

We owe thanks to the VCU Brandcenter because they are attempting to “radically transform the business of advertising and branding by training the next generation of leaders to make the business smarter, less conventional and more responsible.”  Under one roof, you have 200 students that are learning about Art Direction, Copy Writing, Communications Strategy, Brand Management and Creative Technology.  What this means is that these students are learning the art of collaboration and how to use that collaboration to cross the divides that still exist in our industry.  Many of these students will end up working for agencies.  Others will end up working for brands.  And some may even end up in the world of start-ups.  But no matter where they end up, they will bring a new sense for how to work together.

If the work that I saw during my time at the Brandcenter is any indication, this approach is going to have a dramatic impact on the marketing industry.  If your company wants to help lead the charge, there are going to be 100 amazing students graduating from the Brandcenter in May.   You might want to book a plane ticket to Richmond to see if you can convince a few of them to join your team.

A few weeks ago, I was amazed to find out that Media Industry News had named me to their list of “Top 21 Social Media Superstars.” min’s Top 21 Social Media Superstars is for “those executives who have leveraged the power and influence of social media platforms for their brands and stand as the first generation of superstars.”  The honor alone was amazing but even more humbling when you consider my fellow award winners included folks such as:

• Michael Arrington, Founder, TechCrunch
• Tina Brown, Founder/Editor-in-Chief, The Daily Beast
• John Byrne, former Executive Editor, BusinessWeek
• Nick Denton, Publisher, Gawker
• Brandon Holley, Editor-in-Chief, Yahoo! Shine
• Mike Lazerow, CEO, Buddy Media
• Harvey Levin, Managing Editor, TMZ.com

Unfortunately I was unable to make it to New York City this past week for the award ceremony but I want to thank all of you that read this blog because the honor really goes to you.  As you can see in the below description of why I was selected, this blog had a lot to do with me making the shortlist:

As brand manager for P&G’s corporate marketing, wunderkind Dave Knox put himself on the social media map this past year with his very popular “Hard Knox Life” blog. Dedicated to discussing and dissecting issues that intersect with marketing, media and technology, Knox’s blog reads like a lively compendium of insights relevant to his current role at P&G. Knox’s overall goal: “To find the next generation of content, partnerships and entertainment to connect our brands with consumers.” So far, the former music industry vet has made his blog a must-read for other brand marketers seeking to make sense of the ever-changing digital landscape.

So thank you again for reading my little piece of cyberspace.   All of you are the best motivation a guy can have.

Recently I had the honor of being interviewed by Vince Thompson for the CBS Interactive initiative, Smart Planet. If you are interested, you can read the entire interview where I give my perspective on innovation and using social media to bring the outside in.

But if you need a teaser, here is one question that I find myself answering more frequently than others.

Tell us about your blog and how it fits in with your career?

Hard Knox Life is about the intersection of Marketing, Media and Technology.  In other words, it is about how about how Brand Managers need to start thinking like a Marketing Technopologist.   But really the blog is about helping me becoming a better marketer by having a place to test ideas and stretch my thinking.  When working for a big corporation, you have an amazing amount of resources at your fingertips.  And you are surrounded by incredibly smart people.  But most of these people have a similar background to you and are trained to approach problems in the same way.  My blog has helped me by giving me access to people with different backgrounds and views on the business world.  It is a way to connect with these people outside of my day to day work and really get a set of different viewpoints on what is going on with marketing.

For those of you blogging, do you find yourself often having to explain why you are doing it?

One the organizations I am heavily involved with in Cincinnati is our local chapter of the United Way.  In particular, I have been helping them explore how they can better use Social Media to better tell their story and help with fundraising.  The first of these efforts is the recently launched “Give 5″ campaign, including the below video. Please help me with these efforts by watching the below video and helping “Give 5″ in whichever way you can.

How can you Live United in Greater Cincinnati?  There’s an easy way to make a difference in these tough times.  Give $5 now and invite 5 of your friends to do the same.  Together, we’ll provide 100,000 diapers to local families.

Please click below to Give 5 Now.

On Friday I had quite the shock when my email inbox was suddenly filled with notifications of new followers on Twitter.  A quick check of Tweetdeck gave me the answer when I was humbled to learn that Ad Age had named me one of “25 Media People to Follow on Twitter.”  I have a tough time believing I should be on the same list as business luminaries like John Battelle, Mark Cuban, and Chris Anderson but I am honored all the same.

Here are a few of the other very deserving folks that made the list:

Mark Cuban (@mcuban) – Owner of HDNet (and the Dallas Mavericks)

John Battelle (@johnbattelle) – Founder and Chairman of Federated Media

Chris Anderson (@chr1sa)- Wired Magazine editor

Jeff Lanctot (@lanctot) – Chief Strategy Officer at Razorfish

David Carr (@carr2n) – New York Times media columnist

David Berkowitz (@dberkowitz) – Emerging Media Director at 360i

Brian Lam (@blam) – Editorial Director at Gizmodo

Pete Cashmore (@mashable) – Founder/CEO of Mashable, the social-media blog

Fred Wilson (@fredwilson) – Managing Partner of Union Square Ventures

Thanks to Nat Ives (@natives), Abbey Klaassen (@amklaassen), and Michael Learmonth (@learmonth) for the honor of making the list.  And a special thank you to everyone who takes the time to read this blog and follow my ramblings on Twitter.  I really, really appreciate it.

Related Links:

• Advertising Age – “25 Media People You Should Follow on Twitter”
• Silicon Alley Inside – “25 Media People You Should Follow on Twitter”