UN Unilever NV

Heineken NV (HEIA.AE), which on Thursday confirmed it had signed a multi-million euros online advertising contract with Google Inc. (GOOG), is in talks with Facebook Inc. and other companies about similar deals as it looks to boost its brand presence on social media sites.

"We are in talks with various stakeholders, including Facebook," that may result in contracts with different partners, said Heineken's Chief Commercial Officer Alexis Nasard.

Heineken earlier Thursday confirmed it had signed an advertising deal with Google back in March, one of the first major international brands to do so, according to Nasard.

He said Heineken attached both a cost-savings target and page view target to the deal, but declined to say what the targets were. The deal will not only focus on the Heineken brand, but the company's entire product range, he said.

"Heineken will share its knowledge on what consumers like with Google, while Google in return will share their knowledge on what type of formats are most effective," Nasard said, for example how long visitors to the site watch particular videos, so that Heineken can broadcast its commercials more effectively.

"The deal with Google will mainly focus on distributing our commercials on YouTube, in order to reach our target groups of 20-somethings, but will also include promotions such as banners on Google," said Heineken spokesman John Paul Schuirink.

Mark Jansen, a Google spokesman based in Amsterdam, declined to comment on whether other companies had struck similar deals with Google, and deferred further questions to Heineken's press department.

Schuirink said the deal with Google, and similar potential ones, doesn't mean it will cut back on traditional advertising such as television. "Our overall marketing budget will increase although we will see a shift within the budget, with a larger share of it going to digital advertising," he said.

Heineken spends 4% of its approximately EUR2 billion annual advertising budget on online marketing, but this will grow in the future, he added.

In April, Heineken said it would step up its total advertising and promotional spend. This would bring it more into line with the 15%-20% of revenue spent by other consumer goods companies such as Nestle S.A (NESN.VX), Unilever PLC (UN) and Danone SA (BN.FR). Heineken spent around 12% of its 2010 revenue on advertising and promotion.

While Heineken has used social media to advertise its products before--at the start of this year it launched a multimedia ad campaign with a new strapline 'Open your world', for television, cinemas and online--but the Google deal marks the first time it has done it so professionally, Schuirink said. The company also uses Apple Inc.'s (AAPL) iAd network, he said, and is in talks about expansion opportunities there aswell.

Schuirink said the agreement with Google will span 20 countries, ranging from Western Europe to the U.S., as well as emerging markets such as Mexico. He said the agreement has no end-date and will involve campaigns at both a global and local level, but declined to give any financial details.

Although the Heineken deal will initially focus on YouTube, the company is already looking to broaden the scope, Nasard said, adding it will meet with Google over the summer to discuss further possibilities.

Heineken rival SABMiller PLC (SBMRY) isn't looking at similar deals as its approach is to focus on local and brands and consumers, said company spokesman Nigel Fairbrass. Anheuser-Busch InBev NV (ABI.BT), the world's largest brewer, and Denmark's Carlsberg AS (CABGY) weren't immediately available to comment on their digital advertising plans.

Heineken's main advertising accounts are with U.S. independent ad agency Wieden & Kennedy and Frence's Publicis Groupe SA (PUB.FR), and they remain unaffected by the Google deal, Schuirink said.

Major advertising holding companies, including Publicis, WPP PLC (WPP.LN) and US-based Omnicom Group Inc. (OMC) have increasingly pushed into digital advertising over the few past years. As marketers are spending more and more money on the web, agencies are looking for ways to expand their digital capabilities, either through acquisitions, hiring tech-savvy staff or forming partnerships with web companies.

In the U.S. alone--still the world's largest ad market--online advertising spending is expected to grow 20% to $31.3 billion in 2011, up from $26 billion in 2010, according to eMarketer.

Heineken shares closed Thursday up 0.8%, or EUR0.33, at EUR41.47.

-By Anna Marij van der Meulen; Dow Jones Newswires; +31 20 5715 216; annamarij.vandermeulen@dowjones.com

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