Facebook Boosts Diageo Alcohol Brands in "Multimillion-dollar advertising deal" as social media deal brings sales

As CDD's report on digital alcohol marketing documented, alcoholic beverage marketers are using the full range of online ad tools to target users--including young consumers.  Facebook, as part of its "do everything to boost our revenues prior to our IPO" strategy, just made a deal with Diageo--which produces well-known brands as Captain Morgan, Smirnoff, Jose Cuervo, etc.  Facebook is saddling up to the digital ad bar to help Diageo use its social targeting clout.  Already, a "study of five of Diageo’s key brands in the US (Smirnoff, Captain Morgan, Baileys, José Cuervo Margaritas and Crown Royal) has shown a 20% increase in sales due to advertising on Facebook.  More than 950 of its marketers have been trained in “Facebook boot camps” to build their social media capabilities, boosting Diageo’s “Friend” count on the social networking site from 3.5 million to 12m over the past year, while the company claims that Smirnoff is the “the number one beverage alcohol brand on Facebook worldwide”.
Here's more on the cozy Facebook drinks deal.  Hey FTC:  Are you watching this for your forthcoming report?

The arrangement will see the two companies sharing skills and resources as well as the appointment of Diageo’s chief marketing officer Andy Fennell to Facebook’s client council.
Diageo, the world’s biggest drinks company, will work closely with a team from Facebook to drive customer engagement and boost its brands such as Guinness and Smirnoff, which already have 12.6 million fans on the site.
Diageo hopes to utilise the arrangement to target emerging markets such as Brazil and Singapore, where Facebook has established local teams as part of the deal.
Facebook will work with the company’s roster of agencies from concept development through to campaign execution.
The “client council” scheme was launched by Facebook in June and Fennell said: “We are already seeing real value from our work in this space.
“Over 950 Diageo marketers around the world have now been trained in Facebook boot camps to build their social media capabilities and we are seeing significant returns on investment across a number of brands.