SMAC Wiki Launches, B. Bonin Bough of PepsiCo joins the Board

By Maura Curtin

Contact: Damien Ragsdale
Weber Shandwick
(212) 445-8315
dragsdale@webershandwick.com

SOCIAL MEDIA ADVERTISING CONSORTIUM™ ENCOURAGES THE INDUSTRY “TO TALK SMAC” WITH LAUNCH OF NEW SOCIAL MEDIA WIKI

B. Bonin Bough, PepsiCo’s Global Director of Digital and Social Media, Appointed to the SMAC Board

December 2, 2009 – New York, NY: The Social Media Advertising Consortium™ (SMAC), a non-profit trade council organized to create standards and measurement for social media, today announced the launch of its new SMAC Wiki at http://wiki.smac.org/. The goal of the new site is to compile a standard vocabulary to define the environment, users, actions, products and results in the social media industry.

“In 2009, social network advertising revenues will hit an estimated $1.825 billion.* Yet the industry is still fuzzy when it comes to details,” said Maura Curtin, Executive Director of The Social Media Advertising Consortium™ (SMAC). “The lack of a universal language around social media makes the ever changing landscape of social media even more confusing. By working to compile, distill, define and source a list of terms, SMAC has put a stake in the social media landscape to help our rapidly evolving industry address this challenge.”

The SMAC members represent a variety of social media companies, allowing for a holistic view on not just the terms that should be standardized, but also their definitions. To that end, the SMAC Wiki allows for continuous updating and revisions to reflect the ever changing landscape of social media.

SMAC invites all users to be part of the process and learn to use these terms properly, share them with colleagues, and provide feedback. The SMAC Standards Board reviews all submissions and publishes approved terms with proper credit. As the social media industry grows, SMAC will continually review and add those terms that reach a critical mass of usage.

The SMAC Wiki was developed by the following team members:

TEAM LEADER

Libby Pigg VP Media Strategy, Edelman Digital

WORKING GROUP

Mike Barbeau VP, Social Vibe
Stuart Bogaty SMAC Board Member
Jon Rygh
Shiv Singh VP, Social Media & Global Strategic Initiatives, Razorfish
John Schneider VP of Sales, Federated Media
David Woodrow SVP Sales & Partner Services, Gather

B. Bonin Bough of PepsiCo Appointed New SMAC Board Member

The Social Media Advertising Consortium is also proud to announce the appointment of B. Bonin Bough, Global Director of Digital and Social Media, PepsiCo, to the SMAC leadership board. Mr. Bough. Formerly the Executive Vice President of Digital and Social Media at Weber Shandwick and a professor at NYU’s Center for Publishing Graduate Studies, Bough has helped the PepsiCo brand parlay itself as a traditional advertising icon into the realm of digital social brand interaction.

Tapping into his proven track record of online community building, social media, social video, and digital marketing, Bough has been instrumental in integrating social media and the “online conversation” into PepsiCo’s overall brand vision, engaging online consumers, and tracking behavior and trends that the brand can leverage successfully. Bough looks to bring his expertise to the SMAC leadership board and help the council continually set new standards for measurement in social media.

“I’m excited to be on board with the thought leaders that comprise the membership of the Social Media Advertising Consortium,” said Bough. “As social media keeps growing and evolving, we need a forward-thinking industry organization that represents our interests and really looks at the ecosystem of social media -paid, earned and integrated. For me that organization is SMAC.”

*Source: Nielsen, April 2009