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John Miller is the founder and president of Scribewise, a professional services marketing agency. He was previously a partner at the PR and branding firm Braithwaite Communications, and he started his career in radio, serving as a longtime radio host covering the Philadelphia Eagles.
Favorite project you’ve worked on? In 2020, my company worked with a boutique consulting firm that was full of truly warm, funny and honest humans. But their brand didn’t reflect that. Like most consulting firms, they thought they needed to act seriously all the time. We wanted their brand to be in true alignment with their energy, so we brought it to life with a new look that was unique to them—it was energetic, fun, smart; exactly what working with the team was like. They were willing to take a chance and stand out, which is what marketing is all about.
What’s your favorite ad campaign? This is reaching back a bit, but Vonage had a TV ad in 2015 where the tagline was “The Business of Better.” The ad itself was humorous and energetic, but I loved it because of the word “better.” “Better” is such a powerful word; it’s about continually striving. “Better” is better than “best.”
One thing we can’t guess from your LinkedIn profile: Once upon a time, hundreds of thousands of people valued my opinion on professional football—I hosted an Eagles pre- and post-game radio show from 2000 to 2013. I could never be a full time sports talk host—so much if it is focused on being as outrageous as possible—but I’ll admit that side of me sometimes creeps into my work.
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What marketing trend are you most optimistic about? Least? I’ve been writing and talking about LLMO (large-language model optimization) a lot lately—this is a gold-rush moment. LLMs are changing how people find information, and how brands get found. Yes, you still need technical SEO and schema markup for LLMs to read your content clearly, but the differentiator is the useful, well-written, authentic insight that reflects your expertise; having it published by a media outlet (rather than on your website) is a huge amplifier. Conversely, I thank god we’re not an SEO agency; their days are numbered.
What’s one marketing-related podcast/social account/series you’d recommend? I’m not too tuned into podcasts (I’m more of a visual learner), but do have a few book recommendations for you: Oversubscribed by Daniel Priestley, which provides a framework for getting prospective clients to practically beg to work with you; Humanizing B2B by Paul Cash and James Trezona, which makes the case for using stories and emotion in marketing so-called boring businesses; and Return on Courage by Ryan Berman, which was an inspiration for my own book, Playing It Safe Sucks (shameless plug!).
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