John Scalli
John Scalli has a lifetime of experience in the marketing and advertising world and the insight and wisdom from a legacy of entrepreneurs who came before him, people he’s proud to call family. In 2021, in a sea of marketing companies driven ever more by automated DIY tactics and generic strategies, John envisioned a different model that married “local store” tradition with worldwide innovation—where everyone knows your name and champions your success. He brought it to life with the founding of Centurion Media Solutions, a full-service marketing and management consultation company in New York.
Comprised of a team with over 30 years of international marketing experience in various industries, Centurion creates highly effective marketing strategies through a simple but profound practice: getting to know each of their clients, their company, values, and their history, and working with them to create a unique strategy to maximize their ROI. With clients spanning the globe, industries, and sizes—from small businesses, such as restaurants or local shops, to large corporations and nonprofits—Centurion aims to be the ultimate marketing management agency for all companies. Why? “Because we care,” says John. It’s that simple.
From helping a restaurant gain attention via targeted, local campaigns or working to challenge misconceptions about an entire industry, from building a brand across social media platforms to optimizing entire marketing budgets through digital, print and internet advertising, SEO, data analytics and more—Centurion delivers. “When people hear ‘marketing,’ they think of Instagram and Facebook, but there’s so much more,” John says. “There’s content creation, geofencing, ad placements, etc. We offer all of that. Our team’s diverse experience—and that we truly care about the people we serve— that is what makes us really different.”
John spoke with us about how Centurion is taking a fresh approach to marketing by ripping up the “faceless” playbook and bringing back the human experience.
While Centurion also serves large corporations, you have a special affinity for small businesses. Tell us about your background. How did your experiences inform your unique model?
I come from a family of entrepreneurs. My father had a print advertising company and my mother had an interior design business. Other relatives worked in various trades or within the financial sector, creating either their own businesses later on or working with others. Having engaged with all of these people from a young age, working alongside them and learning from their interactions with their coworkers and clients, I realized that the key to their success was the human element; listening to them, getting to know them, asking general questions such as, “How are you? How is the family? Did you catch that game last night?” Simple questions that seem meaningless on the surface, but create a human connection that cause clients, vendors, and even employees to stay loyal to these small businesses or firms for years, in some cases even decades. Big box stores and corporations may have had that at one point, but today you interact with voice recordings, pre-made phone menus, and are a number on a spread sheet. For convenience and short term that may be great, but for longevity, adding that human element means a lot.
What are the most common marketing challenges for businesses, and how are you helping them overcome these?
The most common challenge our clients face, large and small, is understanding quality and effectiveness. With the seemingly infinite number of videos, "virtual courses," guidebooks, and other options, it’s extremely difficult for businesses to understand which type of marketing works best for them, which will be most effective. Our strategy is simple: to communicate and learn from the client and their company what the most effective marketing strategy will be. There is no such thing as a "one size fits all" approach. We believe that by understanding our client's strengths, weaknesses, and goals, we can craft a unique plan to maximize their ROI.
What else makes Centurion’s different from other firms?
Before marketing, I was in philanthropy, which changed the way I interacted with people on a daily basis. I learned from a mentor of mine that creating a real change or solution to a problem comes from truly understanding it, not just throwing generic solutions out there. When it comes to my business today, I don’t just want to know about a product or service, I want to understand the person and come up with a real long-term solution. We don’t just follow a playbook, and while we do offer packages, it’s never just “What plan do you want?” We work backward, if you will. Our unique specialty is how we interact with our clients, learning about them and their businesses, and immersing ourselves through research to better understand their challenges from the marketing side of things and help them overcome those obstacles by creating detailed strategies to help them. Again, it goes back to including that human element in which today, technology has essentially supplanted it. Our job is not to eliminate the technology but blend it with that “old school” human experience to really give our customers an edge over their competitors in whatever field or industry they are in.
While you lead a thriving firm, what continues to drive you, John?
There are so many people with fantastic imaginations, brilliant solutions, and passionate missions to make the world a better place. Every client I work with has a unique passion or idea that can benefit others, whether on a community, national, or even global scale. Through marketing, my team and I can share these ideas and the brilliant people behind them with the world so they can make that positive impact.
John Scalli
President & Founder — Centurion Media Solutions
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-g-scalli-48aaa7a5/
Website: www.CenturionNYC.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/CMS.NYC
Instagram: www.instagram.com/cms_nyc/