Exceptional Results

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For the past 12 years, we have worked with clients across every industry and sector in the United States. We've advised the nation's largest and oldest companies, as well as brand-new technology and consumer product startups. QGA has a strong reputation for tackling difficult challenges, including assisting companies, associations, and clients during their times of crisis.

Our goal is to provide the best strategic advice and deliver a successful outcome time after time. While every challenge is unique, QGA's discipline and approach is a method that we've developed and been honing since our inception.

 
  • Communications & Digital Practice

    • The Science Coalition

      The Science CoalitionSituation:

      Leading research universities in the United States seek to sustain and build federal funding for basic research

      Objectives
      • Preserve federal funding for basic research during financial crisis
      • Develop Congressional champions for the cause of basic research funding
      • Educate members of Congress and Executive Branch about the economic impact of sustained funding for basic research
      Actions:
      • Coordinate and produce marquee Capitol Hill events on the subject of basic research [PDF]
      • Re-launch advocacy-based coalition website
      • Launch social media channels into the communications plan
      • Produce video series featuring researchers, students and university leaders who will be directly impacted by the sequester's cuts to federally funded research
      • Construct comprehensive resource guide for Members of Congress regarding private sector companies born of federal research dollars
      Results:
      • Ensured continued Congressional support for federally funded basic research

    • Sorenson Communications

      Situation:

      Market leader in telecommunications services to the deaf faces marketplace reorganization under FCC rulemaking

      Objectives:
      • Develop a communications campaign that enlists Congressional support for maintaining the quality of service that currently exists under Americans with Disabilities Act
      • Educate the hearing public about how the video relay service connects deaf Americans with the hearing
      Actions:
      • Message development for government relations campaign on Capitol Hill and with the FCC
      • Produce video explanation of video relay service for members of Congress and staff
      • Develop social media/grassroots campaign to engage the deaf community in the FCC rulemaking process
      Results:
      • Successfully modify rulemaking proposal by FCC

    • Medicare Access for Patients Rx (MAPRx)

      Situation:

      The need for a digital communications strategy for a coalition of patient, family caregiver and health professional organizations committed to safeguarding the well-being of patients with chronic diseases and disabilities who rely on Medicare Prescription Drug Coverage

      Objectives:
      • Redesign website to promote coalition's advocacy priorities
      • Initiated social media presence
      Actions:
      • Relaunch MAPRx.info website
      • Produce MAPRx video series profiling patients who rely on Medicare Prescription Drug Coverage
      • Develop digital content for various social media platforms
      • Provide ongoing coalition management and strategic counsel
      • Establish MAPRx Facebook and Twitter pages
      Results:
      • Maintain Congressional and Administration support for the Medicare Prescription Drug Program

    • Wind Production Tax Credit

      Situation:

      Leading U.S. energy companies seek extension of wind production tax credit in order to expand and sustain renewable energy investments

      Objectives:
      • Leverage existing trade association campaign
      • Target Republican Members of Congress with an advocacy campaign that highlights jobs in Red states
      • Build awareness in Red states of wind energy's impact on local tax bases
      Actions:
      • Message development for government relations campaign on Capitol Hill and general public
      • Build campaign-specific microsite
      • Develop community-based video case studies of the wind production tax credit impact on jobs and local economies
      • Place pro-production tax credit opinion editorials in major newspapers
      Results:
      • Wind production tax credit extended through 2014

    • U.S. Air Force Light Air Support Competition

      Situation:

      Brazilian aircraft manufacturer seeks entrance into U.S. defense market

      Objectives:
      • Educate military, Congressional, and Executive Branch leaders on the superiority of the combat-proven A-29 Super Tucano aircraft
      • Build business and political support for manufacturing facility in Florida
      • Respond to accusations of outsourcing American security
      Actions:
      • Build campaign-specific microsite
      • Recruit third-party validators
      • Develop extensive video library showcasing the Super Tucano's capabilities, effectiveness, and combat-proven history
      • Execute print and digital advertising campaign
      • Establish media relations with national and local press
      • Recruit and share U.S. supplier testimonials
      • Create and place print advertising campaign (publications included: Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, POLITICO, Defense News)
      • Message development for government relations campaign on Capitol Hill and at the Department of Defense
      Results:
      • Won close to a billion dollar award from US Air Force, December 2011
      • Won the appeal for the original award from US Air Force, February 2013

    • International Monetary Fund

      Situation:

      IMF seeks to enter social media space and make visual communication a centerpiece of their communications plan during global financial crisis

      Objectives:
      • Develop a video communications capability within the IMF
      • Connect IMF leadership with international television news media
      • Transition marquee economic reports to easily accessible visual platform
      • Leverage distribution of the Finance & Development magazine through social media and podcast development
      • Establish first-ever IMF Facebook page
      Actions:
      • Re-launch IMF YouTube channel
      • Curate and produce new IMF video series
      • Develop day-of-air video communication during IMF's annual and spring meetings
      • Execute multiple digital and social advertising campaigns
      • Provide management consulting to external communications group on developing best practices in an organizational chart for video communications team
      Results:
      • Establish IMF as leader in video communication among sister organizations
      • Achieve worldwide utilization of video and economic reports
      • Take viewership of YouTube channel upwards of one million views and bolster subscription base five-fold
      • Streamline production workflow and facilitate synergies within IMF divisions

    • Executive Media Training

      Situation:

      Prepare C-suite executives for media exposure, including television and newspaper interviews

      Objectives:
      • Assess client experience and comfort with various types of media interview
      • Build knowledge and confidence with on-camera interview situations
      • Provide message, development, and bridging skills
      Actions:
      • Develop effective C-suite-level media training curriculum
      • Build out media training infrastructure, including authentic broadcasting-quality studio experience
      • Develop proprietary messaging architecture method
      Results:

      Effective training of CEOs in the financial services area, Members of Congress, and trade association leadership

  • Commerce

    • Committee to Restore Dealer Rights

      The Emergency Economic Stabilization and Recovery Act of 2008 also created the Federal Auto Task Force. The Task Force made decisions with respect to closing auto dealerships that many argued were arbitrary and not based on the viability of the dealership. In fact, some dealerships that were actually profit-making entities were shut down. With this as a backdrop, the Committee to Restore Dealer Rights (CRDR) engaged QGA to work with them to help pass legislation requiring an arbitration process for dealership terminations. From the outset, this effort faced stiff resistance from key players who did not want to see the original bailout bill opened to amendment. QGA worked closely with CRDR and hundreds of its dealers to develop its message and target key government policymakers capable of changing the dynamics. QGA helped CRDR work with Congressional leaders to navigate a legislative solution through both houses of Congress that in the end was included in the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2010. This provision provided for a multi-step arbitration process with specific, fair and balanced criteria.

    • Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA)

      On behalf of a large Native American tribe, QGA was successful in increasing a BIA loan guarantee program by a factor of ten to help in the construction of an infrastructure project on tribal land that serves residents and creates local jobs.

    • Trucking and Transportation

      For the past three years, QGA has represented the nation's second largest less-than-truckload (LTL) trucking company. In addition to other work, QGA was successful defeating legislation that would have given their only competitor pension contribution relief, effectively bankrupting the company. This occurred during the Christmas holiday, and QGA worked with a senior Senator and his staff to block a proposal, which without these efforts, would have been passed into law by Unanimous Consent.

    • Consumer Products and Goods

      On behalf of a leading alcoholic beverage company, QGA successfully navigated and conducted outreach at the Federal Trade Commission and achieved a favorable decision for the client, saving them a potentially significant loss of their operating expenses.

    • Immigrant Investment Visas

      QGA recently helped a large hotel chain in its efforts to reauthorize an important immigrant investor program amid a difficult political climate. The program was used by the client to help finance projects to make up for shortfalls caused by tight credit markets. QGA created an informal coalition with three other major hotel companies, representing over a half million U.S. jobs, to help move the legislation along. Ultimately, the legislation was passed out of the Senate just prior to a long break and through the House a few weeks later. It was then sent to the President, who signed it just days before expiration.

  • Technology & Telecommunications

    • Data Breach

      QGA worked with a Global Fortune 100 company to manage a high-profile data breach crisis that resulted in the theft of the account information of nearly 25 million users. QGA helped prepare for Congressional inquiries and responded to media requests to allow the company to continue its own internal assessments. QGA coordinated and executed a strategy on Capitol Hill to educate Members of Congress and resolve doubts about the company's credibility and handling of the data breach.

    • Network Advertising Initiative

      QGA worked with a group of online advertisers to form a coalition to avert onerous restrictions on consumer profiling and online advertising. QGA led negotiations between the industry and the Federal Trade Commission and Commerce Department, which resulted in the formation of landmark self-regulatory privacy principles for online preference marketing.

    • Telecommunications Company

      For nearly a decade, QGA has represented a large telecommunications company on a variety of issues, most recently on net neutrality and the availability of spectrum. The client has been actively engaged in discussions around net neutrality to ensure that investments made in technological infrastructure remain in place. Efforts included working with Members of Congress and the Federal Communications Commissioners to free up under-utilized spectrum, allowing companies to devote more resources to this space and continue to drive innovation.

    • Broadway Theaters

      QGA worked with an entertainment and production association in meeting with the FCC regarding whitespace rulemaking to designate channels for wireless microphone operations. QGA lobbied for the FCC to incorporate comprehensive interference protections for important incumbent services in rules for unlicensed devices in whitespaces.

  • Healthcare

    • Hospitals

      QGA was successful in its efforts to extend financial relief to certain hospitals affected by Medicare's imputed rural floor wage index formula. This extension of policy, through CMS regulation, will now allow these hospitals to plan and compete for patients and employees more effectively with hospitals in neighboring states.

    • Medical Equipment

      QGA was successful in its efforts to pass legislation achieving statutory exemption for certain customized medical equipment that was scheduled to be part of a new Medicare competitive bidding demonstration program. QGA mobilized affected groups, including patients and providers, to argue against the adverse effects of restricting access for people with severe disabilities who need individualized, custom-fit power wheelchairs and rehab devices.

    • Fortune 100 Employer

      QGA developed aggressive and proactive legislative and political strategies to advance a dialogue on comprehensive health care reform initiatives. QGA assisted with the formation and management of a large coalition of employers to advocate private, comprehensive market-based reforms.

    • Long-Term Care Insurance Company

      QGA developed and implemented a successful strategy to handle Congressional oversight hearings. QGA helped raise the company's profile with key decision-makers at the Department of Health and Human Services, within the presidential campaigns and in Congress.

    • Health Reform Coalition

      QGA helped conceive and launch a prominent health care reform coalition—a group of employers and business leaders committed to moving healthcare reform forward at the state and federal levels. Faced with a crowded marketplace of healthcare initiatives, QGA was able to help this coalition differentiate itself and its agenda from others. The coalition's Washington, D.C. launch event in May 2007 resulted in a front page photo in Roll Call, an editorial in the Los Angeles Times and articles in numerous publications including the Wall Street Journal and New York Times.

  • Financial Services

    • FHA Loan Limits

      In the face of strong political headwinds, QGA successfully lobbied senior Members of the Senate on behalf of a major housing trade association to ensure FHA loan limits were restored to previous thresholds after a measure had expired weeks earlier. The amendment passed with 60 votes, the exact number required for passage.

    • NFIP Amendment

      QGA provided a full range of crisis communications and Capitol Hill lobbying for one of the nation's largest property and casualty insurance companies, in the wake of significant controversy around its treatment of customers in the Gulf Region after Hurricane Katrina. Most recently, QGA helped this insurer position itself so that the Senate Banking Committee declined to include a provision in the National Flood Insurance Program Reauthorization bill that would have been detrimental to the company.

    • Interchange Regulation

      During consideration of the Dodd-Frank Act, QGA successfully lobbied on behalf of a debit card payment network to prohibit the practice of network exclusivity, providing an opportunity for growth in the debit interchange sector. This provision was written into law in 2010 and was implemented in 2012.

    • Enhancing Corporate Profiles

      In the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, QGA successfully enhanced the profile of a large asset management company. By leveraging contacts on Capitol Hill and the Administration, QGA was able to transform an important, and not widely known company into a trusted advisor to policymakers on financial services issues.

  • International

    • Pan Am Flight 103

      QGA represented Victims of Pan Am Flight 103, the families of those who were killed by the terrorist bombing of that flight in 1988. Since the U.S. removed Libya from its list of state sponsors of terrorism, QGA worked to raise awareness of the fact that Libya has not fulfilled its financial commitment to the families.

    • Foreign Acquisition of U.S. Company

      QGA provided public relations support of the proposed acquisition of an American stock exchange by a foreign stock exchange, which required both CFIUS and antitrust reviews by the Department of Justice.

    • High-Tech Acquisition

      QGA provided government relations services, in coordination with a legal team, on behalf of a globally recognized foreign aerospace corporation. At issue was its acquisition of the world's largest independent small gas turbine engine and accessory repair and overhaul facility, and a large North American business-aviation services company. The transaction, which required a CFIUS review, came on the heels of an unsuccessful effort to purchase and operate ports in the United States. QGA helped the client achieve key endorsements critical to the acquisition's success.

    • Natural Resources

      QGA provided government relations services, in coordination with a legal team, on behalf of a large international mining company in a proposed acquisition of the company and its American assets by another international mining company. QGA participated in analyzing the proposed transaction in terms of its CFIUS-related sensitivities. QGA was responsible for developing a program of political and public outreach to ensure that the transaction did not suffer from adverse U.S. governmental or public reaction upon its announcement. This transaction ultimately won CFIUS approval.