MTV Entertainment Group Taps Jason White as CMO

Jason White, a seasoned marketing executive who has been serving as the chief marketing officer of the cannabis brand Curaleaf, is joining ViacomCBS as the new chief marketing officer of MTV Entertainment Group, the company announced today. As CMO, White is tasked with steering the marketing directions for the nine properties and brands comprising the MTV Entertainment Group, including CMT, Comedy Central, Logo, MTV, Paramount Network, Pop TV, Smithsonian Channel, TV Land and VH1. He’ll be tasked with planning, strategizing and producing multi-platform campaigns for all nine brands to drive audience gains and subscriber growth, reporting to Chris McCarthy, president, ViacomCBS MTV Entertainment Group. He will be based out of the company’s Los Angeles offices. “My approach is to go in very humbly,” White said about the new role. “[McCarthy] has been there 20 years, and [president of content and chief creative officer Nina Diaz] has been there 20 years. They are iconic in that building, and they have built incredible stories.. I want to go in quietly and learn from the folks that have created so much success, and then figure out how I can extend that success.” Social impact initiatives Before Curaleaf, White served as executive vice president and global head of marketing for Beats by Dr. Dre and had a decade-long stint at Wieden+Kennedy, replacing longtime marketing executive Jacqueline Parkes, the CMO of ViacomCBS’ Entertainment and Youth Group and executive vice president of the company’s digital studios. She departed the company at the end of 2020. Like Parkes, White will be tasked with building up MTV Entertainment Group’s social impact initiatives, which he honed while working at Curaleaf through the establishment of a nonprofit dedicated to aiding individuals harmed by the war on drugs. Ahead of White’s formal arrival, MTV Entertainment Group convened a coalition of entertainment companies this week, including Amazon Studios, Disney, NBCUniversal and Sony Pictures. The effort focuses on improving representation in entertainment programming and setting a best practices media guide. “I'm excited to get behind that to make sure that it’s well received in the marketplace,” White said. He’ll also be tasked with helping strengthen the entertainment group’s nine brands as part of ViacomCBS’ streaming service Paramount+, which is designed to serve as a “house of brands” for the company and help the company win over consumers in the competitive streaming space. “To be a successful brand, you have to know your positioning, what you stand for, who your audience is and where your growth can come from,” White said. “That approach allows us to be platform-agnostic. We can think about linear and we can think about streaming, since they’re all channels for the brand to execute and deliver on the properties and platforms that can help people interpret and understand our brands.” How ViacomCBS’ New Streaming Head is Taking Lessons from Pluto TV to Transform Paramount+

Programming & Performance

MTV Entertainment Group Taps Jason White as CMO

White replaces Jacqueline Parkes, who stepped down in 2020

Kelsey Sutton

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Kelsey Sutton