Thurs Post #1: MAC Marketing Solutions president Cameron McNeill issues apology at CHBA-BC awards ceremony. Public and media still wait for an accounting

Every year the Canadian Home Builders' Association of BC (CHBA-BC) produces an annual awards program they call the Georgie Awards. It's an industry shindig to celebrate excellence in home building.

Says the CHBA-BC

Entrants and finalists exemplify the high caliber of expertise and hard work that is associated with CHBA-BC member companies.

Earlier this week the 2013 awards were handed out and a number of employees from the disgraced MAC Marketing Solutions were up for recognition.

Talk about your awkward situation.

It prompted the CHBA-BC to issue this statement on the MAC Marketing fiasco (click on image to enlarge):

The CHBA-BC was keen to stress that:

"the Georgie Awards® won by MAC Marketing Solutions were for projects not related to the recent news reports."

MAC Marketing president Cameron McNeill got up at the ceremony and made a speech/apology to the assembled throng.  You can listen to that speech here.  

This is what McNeill had to say:

… and what has ensued since then is, ya know,despite the fact that the media started to die down, it's had a chance for me to have a lot of self reflection and to really scrutinize, ahh, ya know our, our moral compass as a company. 

And, ahhh, I think it's really important to, ahh, for me to, ahh, to understand that. And today, I'm, ahh, I'm incredibly proud of of a MAC team of about 25 people here, ahh or 20 people here, this is my 20th year at the Georgie Awards and ahh, I've had, an incredible outpouring of support from people in the industry, ahh, the Canadian Homebuilders Association. I'm very, very, very proud of this industry and our place in it.

And despite the fact that our reputation has been bruised, our morale character remains steadfast and I'm so proud of that. 

I think I owe the entire industry an apology, and the media an apology, for any embarrassment that this may have caused, and any hardship that may have happened as a result of this, ahh, unfortunate incident. However, umm, I think it's really also important for us to use this as a celebration of the, uhh, high standards that we share as an industry, and that I know MAC represents. 

And, ahh, it is now my job, more than ever… excuse me, i'm (illegible) a little here, it's my job more than ever to, ahh, ensure, and it's MAC's job more than ever to ensure, that this never happens again. So thanks for giving me a moment and, ahh, good luck to everyone tonight.

McNeill says he thinks he owes the entire industry an apology and the media an apology.

We agree.  Although we would add that he also owes the public an apology too. And the proper forum for that apology is a press conference that addresses the unanswered questions about exactly what happened, who was involved and what has been done.

CHBA-BC may be satisfied with the response by MAC Marketing, but they are the only ones.

And since McNeill is clearly willing to speak publicly about the issue, it's now time to provide that accounting.

(hat tip derp for the audio)

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BIV Magazine reports both MAC Marketing Solutions and Key West Marketing under investigation by Real Estate Council of BC

Business in Vancouver Magazine is reporting today that not only is MAC Marketing Solutions being investigated over allegations of media manipulation, but so is Key Marketing Inc.

In a piece titled: Real-estate marketers investigated over allegations of media manipulation, reporter Glen Korstrom updates the MAC-gate incident:

The Real Estate Council of British Columbia (RECBC) is investigating a series of incidents in which Metro Vancouver real-estate marketers have allegedly duped media to spur sales and inflate the perception of demand for real estate projects.

The RECBC regulates the real-estate marketing industry and has the power to suspend licences, cancel licences, reprimand and impose fines of up to $20,000.

Its most recent investigation involves MAC Marketing Solutions and a charade that at least one of its employees executed on February 8. MAC owner Cameron McNeill publicly apologized for an employee who pretended in television interviews with CBC News and CTV News to be a customer.

The employee and another woman posing as her sister claimed they were both daughters of wealthy Chinese parents who wanted to celebrate Chinese New Year by buying them a Vancouver condo as a present.

McNeill then conducted an internal investigation that prompted the departure of a senior manager, he told Business in Vancouver.

McNeill would not name the senior manager nor say whether he fired the employee or if he or she resigned.

“Some poor judgments were made and those poor judgments led to unfortunate circumstances,” McNeill told BIV February 20. “I’m not going to say that my investigation is finished entirely, but I have a much clearer picture.”

Korstrom then tells us the RECBC has taken up an investigation into the activities of Key West Marketing and former MAC Marketing partner Cam Good:

RECBC is also investigating two incidents of alleged media manipulation perpetrated by Key Marketing Inc., according to RECBC spokesman Tyler Davies.

Key principal Cam Good, who like McNeill is a past BIV Forty under 40 winner, denies that either of the incidents were indeed “similar deceptions.”

The first incident involved a February 2011 helicopter tour of White Rock that Key organized. Good issued a news release at the time that urged media to view and meet a “a group of Chinese realtors” as they took a helicopter tour of nearby real estate projects. Media outlets reported that the realtors represented overseas clients.

But it later was revealed that the realtors, who were of Asian descent, were based in Metro Vancouver. It was not clear if they had any potential clients based in Asia.

“There was no deception,” Good told BIV in an email. “There was never any misrepresentation about what was being done or who they were.”

The second RECBC investigation into Key involves an April 2012 incident in which a Global TV story about CONDOday Events Inc. identified Key sales manager Tara Fluet as an investor.

CONDOday is a company that Good owns separately from the Key. The two companies share office space and some human resources.

CONDOday hosts Groupon-style deals for investors who are given a short window of time to buy a home in order to reap a substantial discount.

Good said Fluet regrets not disclosing that she was a realtor and that she works for CONDOday’s sister company.

“Tara apologizes for this lack of transparency,” Good wrote in the email. “It was [a matter of] an off-duty salesperson from a related company stopping by an event to check it out and happy to answer questions when asked. 

It wasn’t intentional media manipulation. 

If anyone has anything they would like to pass on to the RECBC, the complaint page is here and their contact info is here.

Korstrom also notes overall real estate industry sales are tanking and gets this take from the MAC president:

In the heady days before the economic downturn, MAC Marketing’s annual sales neared $1 billion, second in Vancouver to Rennie Marketing’s approximately $1.1 billion in sales.

Sluggish real-estate sales, however, have reduced all real estate marketers’ sales targets and made the sector more competitive.

“I like this market,” MAC principal Cameron McNeill told Business in Vancouver. “It’s one where balance and execution creates stronger results. I like a balanced market where developers who can execute well, and [marketing] companies that execute well, can outperform.”

Despite the recent embarrassment of having to publicly apologize and undergo a Real Estate Council of British Columbia investigation into a situation where an employee pretended to be the daughter of a wealthy buyer, McNeill remains upbeat about the future.

“Character is who you truly are,” he said. “Reputation is how people perceive your character. I remain steadfast in our strong moral character.”

He now shies away from quantifying each year’s total sales, but he said that MAC consistently sells more than 1,000 homes each year and employs about 100 staff, including 60 brokers, or “MAC Engine” members, as he prefers to call them.

Kudos to BIV, and reporter Glen Korstrom, for following up on this story.

We'll keep you updated on any further news we come across.

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Vancouver's Chinese New Year (CNY) real estate sales plummet 70%. What was it MAC said before CNY?

Above is the front page headline of the top North American Mandarin newspaper, the World Journal.

The World Journal is a daily Chinese language newspaper serving overseas Chinese in North America. The newspaper has its headquarters in Whitestone, Queens, New York City and is published in major cities containing large Chinese-speaking populations.  These include Atlanta, Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Houston, and Washington, D.C. in the United States as well as Toronto and Vancouver in Canada.

VMD of Vancouver Condo Info tells us today's headline, in big, bold letters state: "Vancouver Chinese New Year RE Sales Plummet 70%"

This follow's yesterday's headline from a local Vancouver Asian paper that screamed: 70% Drop in Home Sales Since Chinese New Year.

(Note: the google translation of yesterday's article incorrectly translates the figure 70 as a 7. The news article  does actually call it a 70% drop.  The change in numbers is a google error).

As you can see, the story is gaining wide attention in the Chinese community. 

Wasn't it just on February 7th, 2013 that the Vancouver Sun was telling us how "Realtors prepare for Lunar New Year Upswing in Sales"?

In fact it was Cameron McNeill, president of the recently disgraced MAC Marketing Solutions, who was quoted in the article:

McNeil said his salespeople are seeing an increase in activity, including from Chinese buyers. “To me, (Chinese buyers) are a leading indicator,” McNeil said. “What I mean is, when Chinese buyers are active, it is a little bit of a bellwether (for the overall market), and the Chinese are active.”

Of course it was only two days after this article that some of McNeill's employee's staged their infamous media deception to create the impression that Chinese buyers were still queuing up to buy into Vancouver's teetering real estate market.

So it begs the question... if the Chinese buyers are a leading indicator - a "bellwether" for the overall market - and Vancouver Chinese New Year real estate sales just plunged 70%; is the overall market in Vancouver in grave danger of plunging significantly?

Perhaps this is why some of MAC's employees were so desperate to fake the presence of active Chinese buyers?

One final thought.

Why is it we are reading about these stunning Vancouver real estate statistics exclusively in the Asian language press and not in the English speaking press?

(hat tip VMD and goku3)

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The broader scope of real estate media manipulation gets more coverage; UDI reacts to controversy - Updated

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Update: See below for Urban Development Institute Press Release rebuking MAC actions

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We wrapped up things yesterday by telling you that the Globe and Mail newspaper had picked up on the broader scope of media manipulation by looking at the actions of realtor Cam Good, a MAC Marketing Solutions partner from 2004-2009.

In the early part of 2012, Good was involved in two well documented incidents in which similar deceptions to last weekend's MAC media ruse were conducted.

The first one involved Good telling the the media he was taking high flying buyers from China on a helicopter tour over White Rock.

In a widely covered media event by Global-TV, Good's actions became legendary in the blogosphere.

Turns out the whole production was a lie.  The high flying buyers from China were actually realtors of Asian descent from Vancouver (you can read Garth Turner's post on this issue here).

In another incident, Good used one of his sales agents from Key West Marketing to pose as an investor interested in his new Groupon-style real estate buying gimmick (see details in our post here).

Today Business in Vancouver Magazine (BIV) picked up on these stories. BIV is a local Vancouver media outlet which offers daily newsbriefs, weekly articles and a searchable archive of business related news.

Their lead story today: Real-estate media manipulation trend emerges.

News yesterday that MAC Marketing had one of its employees pose as a potential homeowner in media interviews has prompted an apology from owner and former Business in Vancouver Forty under 40 winner Cameron McNeill and accusations from bloggers that this is part of a wider trend.

MAC Marketing's manipulation of the media involved employee Amanda Lee along with another woman who said she was Amanda's sister Chris Lee. Together they told both CBC News and CTV News on the weekend that they were waiting for their wealthy parents from China to come to Vancouver for Chinese New Year and potentially buy them a condo during the stay.

A blogger who goes by the name @Village_Whisper exposed the manipulation and prompted McNeill to apologize Thursday.

"All I can say is that I deeply apologize for having misled the media for being there," McNeill told media.

"We were busy and I don't know if the girls were put up to it, or just put on the spot, or if it happened spontaneously. Regardless, it was wrong and I take full responsibility, on my own shoulders."

Such tactics seem to be part of a trend of real-estate marketers manipulating media perception to sell condos.

Business in Vancouver has learned that VancouverIsAwesome.com editor Bob Kronbauer is being paid by the in-receivership Village on False Creek, formerly the Olympic Village, to promote life in the village – even though nowhere on his website does it make it clear that he is being paid to do so.

And @Village_Whisper's blog points to a Global TV story in April 2012 where real-estate marketer The Key was launching what it called "Groupon for condos."

The Global TV story by reporter Michelle Miller featured a woman named Tara Fluet, who was listed as an investor in the program to group-buy condos. A woman by the same name has a LinkedIn profile that states that her job is as a sales manager at The Key.

"The public has a right to know the behind the scenes connections when these stories are presented as 'news,'" @Village_Whisper noted on the blog Whispers from the Edge of the Rainforest.

The Key owner Cam Good, who is also a former Business in Vancouver Forty under 40 winner, did not respond to Business in Vancouver's calls for an interview by press time.

Kudos to BIV for following up on this. Will other media outlets follow suit?

As we go into the weekend, we look forward to hearing from Mr. Good as well as hearing back from MAC's President Cam McNeill.

McNeill promised to tell the media the results of his investigation into what transpired with his employees while he left town for the Family Day weekend.

We wait with bated breath.

Meanwhile, BIV was on Global-TV discussing the scam:

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The Urban Development Institute has released a public statement on the MAC Marketing controversy (click on image to enlarge):

The release states:

UDI Public Statement - Recent Actions Relating to Mac Marketing Solutions

Thursday, 14 February 2013

Vancouver BC – On behalf of Urban Development Institute members, we are disappointed with the recent news about questionable promotional practices by a local real estate sales and marketing company. UDI unreservedly rebukes such marketing tactics, by any marketing firm, engaged in the real estate or land development industry in British Columbia.

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Thurs Post #3: MAC President responds to media fraud allegations. But this isn't the first time MAC's name has come up - Updated

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BC-CTV has now updated their website with McNeill's apology and state they will air it on the evening news at 6 o'clock.

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Cameron McNeill, President of MAC Marketing Solutions, has now responded to the media firestorm developing over the fake TV news story on the weekend.

This time it's the Globe and Mail Newspaper who headlines: Real estate firm confesses after employees pose as buyers in news stories

A Vancouver real estate marketing company is apologizing for having two employees pose as prospective homebuyers in televised news segments on a supposed spike in sales around the Lunar New Year.

The two young women – presented as house-hunting sisters, whose parents would be in town from China for the New Year to help them purchase a condo – are in fact an administrative assistant and a sales assistant with MAC Marketing Solutions, president Cameron McNeill confirmed to The Globe and Mail.

“All I can say is that I deeply apologize for having misled the media for being there,” said Mr. McNeill, who said he was out of town over the Family Day long weekend, when the news segments aired. “We were busy and I don’t know if the girls were put up to it, or just put on the spot, or if it happened spontaneously. Regardless, it was wrong and I take full responsibility, on my own shoulders.”

The news segments were on the supposed spike in sales activity in the weeks around Lunar New Year – a pattern Mr. McNeill insists is “100 per cent true.” In one news segment, the women tour a suite in downtown Vancouver’s Maddox condo development – which is being marketed by MAC. One woman tells the camera they cannot afford to buy on their own and must rely on assistance from their parents.

“We definitely like it here, but we have to talk to our parents,” she says. “Maybe tomorrow we will bring them here.

“If we like this place, we have to tell them and they make the decision. Usually, Chinese people like to buy during this time.”

In reality, the women are not even related.

The misrepresentation was first spotted by the local online community and then dissected on local blogs, message boards and comment sections. Some noticed a Google search of one of the women’s named turned up her Facebook and LinkedIn pages – both since deleted – which stated she worked at MAC.

Mr. McNeill said there have been discussions about the incident within the company but it is not yet known who is behind it.

“I’m trying my best to figure it out,” he said. “Will there be some heads rolling? I don’t know.”

When asked if the ploy may lead to terminations at the company, Mr. McNeill said it would depend on the depth of responsibility.

“If it was blatant and on the hands of one person, then I think there might be some severe repercussions, but it’s hard for me to answer that without knowing all the details surrounding it.”

He said he is not aware of anything like this having happened at the company before.

Of course, this isn't the first time we've seen real estate company employees posing as customers for news stories... and there is a MAC connection there as well.

Faithful readers will recall this Global-TV news story from the beginning of April, 2012:

Cam Good is said to be a former top MAC salesman who had branched out with his own real estate company - Key West Marketing. Key West was promoting a new gimmick which brought the Groupon concept to real estate.

We profiled it in this post.

That news story prominently featured a prospective investor named Tara Fluet.  Here is a screen shot from the above news piece.

Tara is identified as a ‘White Rock Investor.' What does she have to say about her experience in the new Groupon-style promotion?

“With Groupon, and the way it exploded, you do get great deals on there, so, why wouldn’t it work with condos, the developer here wants to sell the last few units, so if 20 people come in and buy them all at once, they’re obviously going to get a better deal than coming in one by one.”

Interestingly when we did a google search for Tara Fluet, this is what we found:

Apparently she was a realtor working for Cam Good and selling the very condos she was profiled on TV as an interested investor looking to buy!!  (hat tip VREAA).

So is this a case of a former top MAC salesman pulling the exact same style ruse MAC Marketing Systems fabricated the past weekend?

One of the commentors on the thread at VREAA said:

I phoned Global TV to complain about this and spent 10 minutes trying to point out why the lack of information about Ms. Fluet’s connection to Cam Good might mislead viewers into thinking her views as an “investor” were impartial.

The woman I spoke to at Global could not for the life of her understand what I was objecting to, even though I tried repeatedly to explain it. In fact, she grew indignant. She insisted that if Ms. Fluet is an investor, it was perfectly appropriate for her to comment even given her connections to Cam Good.

It would appear this sort of media manipulation is somewhat commonplace.

Worse, there appears to be a compounding conflict of interest.

Faithful readers will recall that while discussing the one day sell out of condos at Marine Gateway, I mentioned that I had been told it is common practice to strike a deal with realtors that, if they want to be an exclusive agent to sell in a development, they had to pick up 5 to 10% of those options.

Once the development is finished, and all the developers suites are sold, then those realtors could sell the units they picked up to be a part of the sales team.

It means that these exclusive agents could be buying up half of the pre-sales at an offering.

As a sales representative for Cam Good's White Rock development, Tara Fluet probably had to pick up a few units herself.

If this is, in fact, what happened, that technically makes her an 'investor?'

Riiight!

Real estate investor? Or real estate con artist?

The public has a right to know the behind the scenes connections when these stories are presented as 'news'.

When the selling realtors are portrayed as eager purchasers in order to whip up a selling frenzy, a frenzy which could possibly help them flip their own pre-sale purchases, I doubt the average person would feel anything but duped when they found out.

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