April 2011

Sun, Grace Top FCC's New Communications Team

The Federal Communications Commission announced the appointment of Tammy Sun as Communications Director of the FCC and Head of the Office of Media Relations, and Neil Grace as Press Secretary to Chairman Julius Genachowski. Sun will direct all communications for the FCC. Grace will work in coordination with Sun to manage media relations on behalf of Chairman Genachowski. Sun will officially begin on Friday, April 29th and Mr. Grace will begin on Monday, May 2nd.

Sun was most recently founder and CEO of Let it Shine, Inc., a New York-based strategic communications agency that offers strategic planning, message development, media relations and crisis communications to high-profile companies, individuals and non-profits. Her previous roles include Deputy Communications Director for the William J. Clinton Foundation, Press Secretary for the Democratic Leadership Council and spokesperson for Sen. Joe Lieberman's 2006 re-election campaign. In addition, she has also served as Executive Vice President of Seeds of Peace, an international nonprofit aimed at building leadership and conflict resolution skills among youth in the Middle East and South Asia. Sun graduated from New York University and began her career as a Staff Assistant in the White House for Vice President Al Gore.

Grace most recently served as Director of Issues and Crisis Practice for Burson-Marsteller, managing media relations on behalf of dozens of technology and telecommunications clients for the New York-based consulting firm. Grace, who first started with Burson-Marsteller in 2004, worked his way up through the ranks, serving as an associate and then manager of public relations and marketing before taking the director position with the firm. He led media campaigns for corporations, associations and government agencies on a number of issues ranging from intellectual property, international trade, automotive and energy and sustainability in the marketplace. A graduate of Georgetown University, Grace started his distinguished career in public relations with the National Restaurant Association in 2002.

Seven Legal Issues That Agencies Should Be Thinking About in 2011

[Commentary] An unprecedented number of legal issues are facing the ad business today. It's not just about court cases, laws and regulations -- these are bigger, weightier legal issues, the kind that will represent real forks in the road and critical decision points for advertising executives.

It's a definitive moment in time where ad people have an opportunity to shape the future of the new American economy, as well as solidify the role the industry plays in that economy. It may sound dramatic, but the fact is, any one of the below points could dramatically change the way the ad business operates. Here are the top legal debates raging in advertising agency industry in 2011. It's critical for business leaders to understand these issues, and it's also imperative that your company knows where it stands.

Should the government, the industry or the market decide how the new economy uses and protects data?
Should the First Amendment protections of traditional media apply to today's new media and tomorrow's future media?
Read my lips: no new taxes -- except on advertising. Should we care?
Personal responsibility or government nanny: What role should consumer protection take?
Should consumer protection be driven by government budget gaps or consumer need?
Contracts, indemnification and insurance -- is it my force field or an illusion?
You hated science in school, so why should you care about patents?

Soon All Shoppers Will Be Mobile Shoppers

[Commentary] The entire digital marketing world is quickly converging on mobile -- and for good reason. But that reason will ultimately have less to do with avian projectiles and porcine targets, and more to do with mobile's growing impact on how and why people buy what they buy. That's because the mobile phone is quickly becoming Americans' favorite shopping partner. Thanks to the increasing purchases and usage of smartphones, approximately 50% of adults aged 18-64 in the U.S. are mobile shopping. With all of these technologically advanced phones in pockets and purses, the way people shop is changing -- and anyone interested in selling anything to anybody had better take notice.

Are we talking "cyber war" like the Bush Administration talked WMDs?

George Mason University Mercatus Center researchers Jerry Brito and Tate Wakins believe the real cybersecurity problem is "threat inflation."

"The rhetoric of 'cyber doom'," Brito and Watkins write, "lacks clear evidence of a serious threat that can be verified by the public. As a result, the United States may be witnessing a bout of threat inflation similar to that seen in the run-up to the Iraq War. Additionally, a cyber-industrial complex is emerging, much like the military-industrial complex of the Cold War. This complex may serve to not only supply cybersecurity solutions to the federal government, but to drum up demand for them as well."

Comcast Hires Former FCC Commissioner Rachelle Chong

Former Federal Communications Commissioner Rachelle Chong has joined Comcast as regional VP of government affairs for California.

She reports to Curt Henninger, SVP of government affairs for California. Chong will be based in Livermore and coordinate telecom policy and government affairs activities statewide. Chong was a commissioner from 1994 to 1997. She was later appointed to the California Public Utilities Commission by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R). Her resume also includes stints at law firms Coudert Brothers, Kadison Pfaelzer and Graham James, where she was a partner. Chong is also co-chair of the California Chapter of the Federal Communications Bar Association.

Poll: 62% of Consumers Feel Their Smartphone Is Obsolete

As new smartphones are launching on a regular basis, US consumers are starting to feel the crunch of accelerating technology cycles: 62 percent believe that their current smartphone is either obsolete or will be so before the end of their current contract.

The data comes by way of a poll from Retrevo, a Sunnyvale (CA) consumer electronics shopping and review site. The core issue is that as smartphone uptake is on the rise, the technology inside the devices is currently improving on a yearly basis. And yet, many consumers opt for a two-year contract in order to gain the cheapest hardware price due to carrier subsidization. Some could go month-to-month, but that generally requires paying full price for a handset. One solution to get the smartphone cycle in sync with contracts is the option of a one-year carrier commitment. Depending on your carrier, you may pay a little more up front for hardware, but only be committed to a year of voice and data service. Retrevo’s poll found that 66 percent don't want to pay more for a phone in order to get a one-year contract, while 19 percent would go for a 12-month term for an additional $100 hardware price. Ironically, Verizon Wireless just this month eliminated such a one-year contract option, so it’s either pay full price for a phone or commit to “cellular servitude” as your phone becomes obsolete.

7 Technologies to Solve the Spectrum Crisis

Mobile broadband demand appears to be outstripping the supply of spectrum. But here are seven solutions that can make our airwaves go further. Carriers will still have to figure out how to keep their margins intact as the usages of their spectrum outstrips the current cost models around providing it.

ZTE’s Software Defined Radio;
Rajant’s Mesh Networking;
Carrier Aggregation (bonding a carrier’s disparate chunks of spectrum into a unified block);
Wi-Fi;
White Spaces;
Pico and Femtocells; and
LTE Advanced -- this standard will help cram more bits into each megahertz of spectrum as well as help operators more effectively reuse their spectrum

Big Newspaper Chains Still Hurting

While overall ad spending appears to be on the rebound, newspapers are suffering continuing declines in the first quarter, scuttling any hopes that the medium might enjoy a comeback. While industry-wide figures aren't yet available, first quarter results from major publishers, including the New York Times Co., Gannett, and McClatchy, give little reason for optimism.

Chairman Issa to grill White House on Twitter, Facebook messages

The Obama Administration is set to testify next week at a House Oversight Committee hearing about the Presidential Records Act — and whether the White House’s digital communications are being saved in accordance with the 1978 law.

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa’s (R-CA) May 3 session is set to focus on whether the law accounts for new technologies, such as Facebook and Twitter. While current White House policy stipulates rules for how and when communications from official accounts should be saved, Issa is concerned that “policies regarding the use of ‘unofficial’ accounts for ‘official’ communication are far from clear.” White House policy instructs staffers who receive emails on unofficial or personal accounts which contain official business to voluntarily preserve those emails as Presidential Records. The policy does not address the preservation of records which may be generated from personal use of Twitter, Facebook, instant messaging, SMS or other forms of communication.

Is LTE really better than another 4G flavor?

[Commentary] If we accept that 4G has really become a marketing term -- divorced from any real technical definition -- and if operators are truly capable of delivering a new mobile broadband experience beyond what is possible with 3G networks, then they can use whatever delineating terminology they want.

If they can walk the walk, they should be able to talk the talk. T-Mobile’s high-speed packet access plus (HSPA+) has been impressive so far, and once AT&T gets its fiber backhaul in place, its new ‘4G’ network should be just as nifty. A year ago, I wouldn't have referred to either of these networks as 4G, while I would have described Sprint and Clearwire’s WiMax and Verizon Wireless’s long-term evolution (LTE) networks as 4G without blinking a lash. But if HSPA+ is capable of delivering 3 Mb/s to a smartphone and upwards of 8 Mb/s to a USB data card, who is to say that T-Mobile’s 4G is any worse than Sprint or Verizon’s 4G -- at least from a customer’s point of view. Furthermore, as HSPA+ co-opts many of LTE’s bright shiny features, like smart antenna technologies and big fat carriers, what we formerly deemed 3G technologies seem set to match WiMax and LTE’s key innovations. Given that more than 100 operators globally have justified that expense in their current and future roadmaps, there must be something to the argument that LTE is better. But what exactly are LTE’s advantages?

Benton

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