Diageo and Facebook have inked an advertising deal in the millions of dollars, according to a report in the Financial Times. Diageo has been using the Facebook platform for advertising for the past year or so, but with this deal it hopes to expand its relationship to emerging markets, such as Brazil, and to develop better information mining techniques for the Facebook community.
While it is building significant expertise in the latter, the former — global marketing — is still a somewhat new skill set for Facebook. However Facebook’s cross-border success with certain Diageo brands, such as Smirnoff, has been particularly strong, leading to a 20% offline increase in purchases as a result, the FT reports.
Social Media Goes Cross Border More and More
Just recently, as one example, Smirnoff helped Madonna pick a dancer for her next tour in a promotion called the Smirnoff Nightlife Exchange Project that ran on the brand’s Facebook Page. Ad agency JWT created the campaign, which includes 50 simultaneous parties scheduled for November 12, Mashable reports.
As a result of these and other campaigns, more global brands are moving forward with cross-border social media campaigns. In July, it was reported that Heineken was partnering with Google in a multimillion-euro, multi-country initiative that included — like the Facebook and Diageo deal — collaboration on data.
Loyal Consumers
It may be that Diageo and Heineken for that matter, see social media as the nudge that many consumers need to try new alcohol brands. Most consumers are staying loyal to their preferred drinks during the recession, according to a study from The Nielsen Company. When asked how their alcohol purchases have changed since before the start of the recession, more than three-quarters of beer (83%), wine (76%) and spirits (81%) drinkers have not changed the products they purchase.
Only 1% of each alcohol product’s consumers say they usually purchase more expensive products since the recession began, with the remainder usually purchasing less expensive products.
