Dee Mc Laughlin is Senior Vice President, Brand Marketing & Creative for CMT, a division of MTV Networks and available in over 93 million homes. She oversees all aspects of marketing and creative for the network with a focus on brand stewardship and strategic alignment across all CMT businesses. Since joining CMT in 2008, she has developed a concise brand definition and strategy that has unified all CMT’s platforms and has been instrumental in attracting new advertisers and strategic partners to the channel. She coupled creative design with new brand principles and guided the team to numerous award-winning campaigns recognized with Promax/BDA, CTAM and Creativity Awards, among others.
Prior to MTV Networks, Mc Laughlin led the overall strategic direction of the Virgin Entertainment Group while Richard Branson was developing the brand in the USA. As vice president of marketing for Virgin, this included all offline and online promotions, brand creative, advertising and media, partnership strategies, social media and market research. She also led and executed Virgin’s charitable and social corporate responsibilities. Previously at Virgin, she was senior director of marketing and director of brand marketing where she was responsible for directing the design and execution of Virgin Entertainment Group’s corporate identity. She managed all PR strategy, created integrated marketing campaigns and initiated and launched Virgin Megastore’s first customer loyalty program.
Before her career at Virgin, Mc Laughlin was a freelance writer and editor for such publications as Rolling Stone, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, LA Weekly and Live! Magazine.
She is a volunteer with Big Brothers Big Sisters, and active in planning and creating year-round fundraising efforts, with emphasis on explaining the Amachi program which serves children of incarcerated parents. She also mentors and sponsors the college education of two inner city kids in Johannesburg, South Africa, through the CIDA Foundation. She is a member of Brand50 (invitation-only group of Fortune 500 marketing executives), Academy of Television Arts and Science, American Marketing Association, Country Music Association, Women in Cable and Telecommunications, and Leadership Music.
A native of Ireland, Mc Laughlin graduated from Loughborough University in England, and promptly moved to London, then Los Angeles and now Nashville.