• by Wayne Friedman , February 13, 2007

CBS has announced the creation of a locally targeted cross-platform ad-selling division months after leaving behind a similar, mostly national ad unit at former sister company Viacom.

The new unit, called CBS RIOT--which stands for radio, Internet, outdoor, and television--focuses on local marketing and ad deals, rather than network TV or national media. MediaPost first broke news of the group back in January.

The television component of RIOT ad deals makes use of 39 owned-and-operated CBS stations. In addition, advertisers will be able to access CBS Radio's 147 stations, millions of billboards from CBS Outdoor division and local station TV Web sites through CBS Interactive.

Dodge Ram is the group's first deal, a multimillion-dollar promotion that will give Dodge customized spots on local TV and radio stations in more than 100 markets. The effort targets male viewers--directing them to CBS SportsLine.com, where they can play a new interactive game. The campaign starts Feb. 14.

CBS RIOT will be jointly run by Richard Lobel, executive vice president, Altitude Group for CBS Radio; Jon Camera, senior vice president of business development for CBS Television Stations; and Brigg Hyland, senior vice president of business development of CBS Outdoor.

Last fall, Viacom Plus, the 6-year-old cross-media platform selling division of CBS and Viacom, was revamped--essentially removing the CBS properties--as part of the move in separate the two companies.

In January 2006, CBS and Viacom broke into two separate publicly traded companies. At the time, the two said Viacom Plus would continue to sell assets of both companies in multimedia advertising packages.

Since 2000, Viacom Plus struck some $500 million in annual deals, and the biggest chunk was a $350 million annual national deal with the large TV advertiser Procter & Gamble.

The division began in 1998 as CBS Plus and morphed into Viacom Plus in 2000. Former Viacom president and COO Mel Karmazin was a major force in pushing cross-media deals for the division.