Did a former Global-TV reporter set the stage for the entire MAC deception? - Updated

Meet Melanie Briggs. 

Ms Briggs is a Sales Director at MAC Marketing Solutions and has been with the firm since 2004.  

Here's her LinkedIn profile:

Prior to working at MAC, she worked in Television as a reporter on the show "Inside Entertainment", was co-host of "M-Style" and co-host of "The Ultimate Playoff Show".

 Her bio on the Ultimate Hockey Show says:

Melanie Briggs is best known by her legions of male fans as co-host of M-Style on Men TV. Mel was also seen nationally as a reporter for Global's Inside Entertainment and Movie Central's Inside Movies.

Now having someone with media experience on your staff can be an invaluable resource and as a former reporter with Global-TV, she is well positioned to use her connections to advance MAC's agenda.

Briggs' polished TV media talents are on display for all to see in this youtube clip showing her as the host for MAC's Golden Cube annual awards gala, an annual company shindig to reward top performers. Assuming MAC doesn't delete this too, here is that promotion clip:

As you know by now, the infamous MAC Marketing Solutions media deception was engineered around the Chinese New Year celebrations.

In acknowledging his company's misdeeds, MAC President Cameron McNeill is quoted as saying:

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

That's going to be a very important question. Were "the girls" put up to it? And if so, by who?

When queried by the Vancouver Province Newspaper as to whether the two employees were asked to play roles by bosses, he said,

“I did not... it didn’t come from the top. I don’t believe it happened on an order."

Hmmm... we'll revisit that one another day.

Back to Ms. Briggs.

It may interest you to know that Melanie Briggs was involved in this January 25th, 2012 CBC news story which was a CNY pre-cusor story for last year's Chinese New Year sales blitz.:

Real estate agents in and around Vancouver are expecting big things this week, thanks to the Lunar New Year, which is typically a great time for sales.

Real estate agent Malcolm Hasman showed four Chinese families through a $7.8 million mansion in West Vancouver on Tuesday. The home has panoramic views, two kitchens and even a heated driveway.

UBC Prof. Duanduan Li says the Year of the Dragon is auspicious for big changes, including big purchases.  

"In the last two days, I’ve had non-stop telephone calls from all the top Chinese agents in the city to show my properties,” Hasman said.

With recent volatility in the stock market, buyers could be even more eager to invest in property, said Melanie Briggs, of MAC Marketing.

“Based on what we've seen in years past in our downtown projects, we've definitely seen at least double the volume of sales,” said Briggs. “So I wouldn't be surprised if we were to see triple the number of sales.

Briggs, apparent PR rep for MAC, was heavily promoting the downtown Maddox development for last year's Chinese New Year period.

(a sales period which, as we now know, was an absolute flop because the wave of Asian buyers failed to materialize)

Given Briggs' background, and her apparent lead role in things media-related for MAC, you've got to assume she played a prominent role in co-ordinating and setting the stage for the company's TV media foray with CBC and CTV on February 9th of this year.

So would it be natural to also assume she was in attendance to liaise with the media that day? 

If so, how is it that this former member of the television profession, this former reporter with Global-TV, and apparent media relations expert with MAC... how is it she hasn't been heard from yet?

Supposedly "the girls" found themselves in the position of perpetrating this fraud without senior MAC management knowing and intervening.

Where was Melanie Briggs?

Something doesn't make sense here.

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Update: The post originally identified the CBC news story of January 25th as 2013 when it is in fact from 2012. That has been corrected.

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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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