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EXCLUSIVE: I hear John Miller, chief marketing officer for the NBC Universal Television Group, will step down at the end of the year. Miller, a 28-year NBC marketing veteran, has already started telling people within the company about his plans to make a change. He is in talks about possibly staying on at NBC Universal in a different capacity.
Miller has been CMO of the NBC Uni TV Group since May 2004, overseeing marketing and cross-promotion for all 17 divisions, including Universal Media Studios, NBC Uni TV Distribution, NBC Entertainment, NBC News, NBC Sports, Telemundo, Bravo, USA Network, Syfy, Oxygen, MSNBC, CNBC and The Weather Channel. He also chairs a marketing council for the parent company, NBC Universal, overseeing all cross-company promotion. Miller previously served as president of the NBC Agency since 1999. Before that, he was the longtime head of advertising and promotion for NBC and co-president of the NBC Agency alongside longtime partner and co-president, Vince Manze. Miller joined NBC in 1982.
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John is as classy as they come. Smart without being arrogant. Aggressive without being pushy. Competitive without being heartless. His calm demeanor and great leadership will be missed at NBC Entertainment, but hopefully utilized elsewhere in the company. Best of luck whatever you do, John.
Agreed! A great professional. Good luck!
John is about one of the nicest guys in the business, super-easy to deal with and super-smart, always on top of trends across the spectrum. Huge loss for NBCU if they don’t find him a high-paying consultant gig or similar.
while this news was inevitable, it brings sadness (or is it jealousy that he gets to go?) for those fortunate enough to work alongside him. john’s all the things other commenters have said & then some. a true leader, he had a knack for always knowing what all the pieces were – details! big picture! – all of it. he knows his stuff, and for a guy who’s in the promo biz, ironically, he’s no b.s.’er. he treats people with a respect so often lacking in this town. he’s not a believer in yelling to make himself heard or tearing down others to make himself look better. a gem. he has a reverence for nbc and worked passionately & tirelessly on her behalf. sadly, heart like that is a rarity these days.
They don’t get better than John, either as a pro, a creative or a person.
Can’t disagree with any of the “spectacular guy” sentiments. However, that shouldn’t obscure the fact that John’s got the creative goods, big time. Over the course of his nearly 3-decade career, Miller has developed some kick-ass creative campaigns and inspired countless promotional practices, on and off-air, which are now de rigeur at every network– broadcast or cable. Though it’s hard to remember today, during much of his reign NBC was #1…and John was anything but incidental to that success.
I don’t know guys. When I was at NBC a decade ago, Miller and Manze were the over-confident blowhard knuckleheads behind some of NBC’s worst decisions. I’ll always blame NBC’s decent into lowest common denominator overly masculine and deeply generic programming on these two guys. They had WAY too much power and they used it unwisely, running roughshod over a programming department that was – to be fair – not exactly setting the world on fire. They helped plant the seeds of NBC’s destruction.
I beg to differ, after years of success recognizing and marketing great TV show from “Seinfeld” to “ER” to “Will and Grace” and “West Wing” – are you saying that suddenly Miller and Manze were on the side of “Daddio,” “Inside Schwartz” and “Titans???”
Believe or not, marketing has always been and will always be the “ass” end of the programing food chain – if they’re lucky they get great material otherwise and they only get to “polish” the turd.
Plus, if NBC is run like the other networks – the marketing folks have no idea what’s being developed until it’s too late to have any viable input. In fact, most development and programing execs can teach the CIA a thing or two about covert operations.
The bottom line, it’s always about the programing not the marketing – we can bring them to the table but we can’t make them eat.
John Miller is and always will be the best at what he does for NBC. More importantly he cares deeply about people and causes. He will be missed.
Truly a marketing genius and an awesome barber shop quartet singer
So why couldn’t they figure out how to promote a show like Friday Night Lights? It was better than the best cable and broadcast dramas, yet never got any Emmy attention nor legitimate promotion on the network.
John is all class and a joy to work with.
John Miller is five of the smartest people I know.
It’s was John’s “Firetrucks/Newscrew on their way to a fire” spot that he produced in the late 70s at WBBM that got me interested in television promotion. Our paths have crossed a number of times in my career and each time he’s always had time to talk and was always willing to share the benefits of his significant experience. Best of luck, John. You certainly deserve your success—and to quote your many Promax presentations: “Don’t let the bastards get you down.”
In all my time at NBC, my experience with John was always good. He’s creative, cooperative, willing to listen to others, fair and open-minded.
He also does a wicked Mickey Mouse impression.
I haven’t seen John in 5 or 6 years, but he still looked young and fit. I Worked with him in 1987-88. Why hasn’t he aged at all!!??
Great memories of him lip-syncing to “I had the time of my life,” for our affiliate promo reel, with the crazy, red-haired Martha Stanville as his duet partner. He was a lousy lip-sync artist, but a very good vocalist.
Always took the time to smile and say hello to all of us. I will look forward to seeing what he does next!
Sweet John will be missed. A man so kind and mild mannered it was hard to stay awake in meetings, but, hey, everyone can’t be a knuckle-dragging, big mouth from Philly.
He is the very best in the business!
Marketing genius? Maybe in the 80′s. John Miller is one of the key reasons NBC is in the toilet.
He is still living off his “Must See TV” days. Not only has he not lead any kind of innovation there in ages- but he has actively squelched any kind of forward thinking.
Wildly passive-aggressive and lap dog for Zucker, his major accomplishment was to stay in his job as long as he has.
I am sure John’s talents will be sorely missed at NBCU. Best of luck in your next venture.
Hey Pee, blaming John and Vince for NBC’s terrible programming would be like blaming the ad agency for the Yugo. You cannot be more misinformed.
Miller is no bully he’s a brilliant marketer and a great guy through and through. He’s creative, smart and a man of his word. I’m fortunate I got to work with him.
Don’t Pee On My Leg has it right- Miller and Manze were two of the most culturally-disconnected marketers I have ever witnessed which is evidenced by their bad campaigns they tried to recycle from the days of Must-See Thursday. Miller was at least sane and had manners. I witnessed him talk about his discovery in a meeting of this “new thing called Google” less than 3 years ago. Too much power, too much money and no results.
John is moving on? That is industry speak for being FIRED by Comcast. Couldn’t happen to a more arrogant guy.