August 2022

Mike Benson is president and chief marketing officer of CBS, a role he assumed in September 2019.

Benson is responsible for all CBS brand marketing activities, including advertising, promotion, creative, social media, experiential marketing and events across CBS Entertainment, CBS News and Stations, CBS Sports, CBS Studios, CBS Media Ventures and CBS Digital. He works closely with Paramount+ and Paramount Global Content Distribution coordinating branding and marketing efforts with those groups.

Benson and his team unveiled an evolved look and feel for the iconic brand beginning in fall 2020 and continue to evolve it as part of a strategy that unifies branding across theCBS divisions under Benson’s domain. It reinforces continuity and clarity from the core brand to the subsidiary brands while driving attribution for CBS content, whether on the brand’s platforms or others – live, on demand or streaming. Among his more recent campaigns are THE PRICE IS RIGHT COME ON DOWN TOUR, celebrating 50 years of the legendary CBS Original game show with an epic coast-to-coast tour that brought the Wheel, Plinko and prizes to fans at 50 iconic locations. Additionally, on the heels of a successful launch campaign for TV’s #1 new comedy, CBS Original GHOSTS, Benson’s team presented “Summer of GHOSTS,” an immersive campaign with multi-city in-person events, a unique Web3 metaverse game, and NFTs honoring the spirited title characters, living leads and its upcoming sophomore season.

Previously, Benson was head of marketing at Amazon Studios. He led marketing efforts in support of Amazon Original Content, exclusively for Prime Video. He and his team launched and marketed a wide range of adult, sports and children’s programming, including series such as “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” “Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan,” “The Man in the High Castle,” “Homecoming,” “Thursday Night Football,” “The Boys” and others. His work at Amazon was recognized with Adweek’s Brand Genius and Grand Brand Genius Awards, 37 Clio Awards, including two Grand Clios, five Cannes Lion Awards and an Emmy nomination.

Prior to Amazon, Benson was chief creative officer for the Time Warner Global Media Group. In this role, he executed a wide range of innovative partnerships with brand marketers across the Time Warner corporate portfolio, including HBO, Warner Bros., Time Inc. and Turner Networks.

Benson also spent over 12 years at the Walt Disney Company, serving as executive vice president of marketing for the ABC Entertainment Group. He oversaw all marketing and promotional activities for primetime, late night and ABC Studios programming, creating a host of globally executed and highly recognized marketing campaigns for scripted and non-scripted series, specials, movies and mini-series, including “Modern Family,” “Lost,” “Desperate Housewives,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Dancing with the Stars,” “Jimmy Kimmel Live” and “The Bachelor.”

Benson started his career at CBS, working in various positions at WCCO-TV/Minneapolis, and later serving as director of communications and director of creative services for KCBS-TV/Los Angeles. He later worked at VH1/MTV Networks, serving as senior vice president of promotion and program planning.

Married to actress Rebecca Budig and a father of three, Benson resides in Los Angeles.