Cameron McNeill: "I don’t know if it was an overzealous employee or if this happened in a formalized way.”

First off we start with an update on yesterday's post.

In answer to one of our questions, I was advised by CBC reporter Matthew Black that MAC Marketing Solutions sales director Melanie Briggs wasn't on scene at the Maddox display suite when the CBC-TV crew was there.

Says Black:

I was told that "Melanie from MAC" would be there last Saturday. But, if she was, I certainly didn't meet or see her. Nic Jensen - who appears on camera in the original story - was the principal MAC person on hand for both myself and Ms Paterson.

Thanks for clarifying that, Matthew.

So now we have answers to 2 questions from yesterday.

• (1) No... Ms. Briggs wasn't at the Maddox presentation centre during the media photo-op.
• (2) Yes... Ms. Briggs was involved in setting the stage for what would become a media fiasco, but she bailed on attending the actual event at the last moment.

But the questions about what happened at the Maddox display suite have only begun.

Let's take a closer look at what we have been told about what happened on February 9th, 2013.

In exposing the fraud that was perpetrated by MAC Marketing Solutions that day, here is what the TV stations told us in their broadcasts.

From the CTV version

They checked out the scale model, they toured the show suite. On Saturday these two young women seemed keen on buying at a downtown high rise called Maddox.

So we put them in our story on real estate and Chinese New Year.

From the CBC version

Kirk Williams: Things aren't all they seem at this condo presentation centre.

Take a look at the women taking a tour, marvelling at all the features.

Potential buyers hoping to make a lucky start to the lunar new year by buying a condo?

Matthew Black was the reporter on the story.  He asked marketing staff for help in finding Chinese buyers.

One couple didn't want to do interviews. Initially the two women were shy too.

Matthew Black: A few minutes later that story changed again and this time they were going on camera. And this is how we met Chris and Amanda.

So what we have is that CBC and CTV are invited to come by and do a story on real estate and Chinese New Year.

They show up at the Maddox sales presentation centre, and the display suite is full of potential buyers. It's positively teaming with couples who are doing EXACTLY what we keep hearing about in the press - they're in town for CNY and they are here to BUY!

So logically the news crews ask for some visuals. They request to be able to do interviews with some of those prospective Asian buyers.

So what happened next?

MAC President Cameron McNeill claims he doesn't know, so let's try and piece it together.

From CTV's website:

“We’re trying to understand how this happened right now, and so I’m just trying my best to be open with you and just say that I’m very sorry that it happened,” McNeill maintained that the theme of the story – that Lower Mainland condo sites saw a spike in Chinese buyers around Lunar New Year – was completely true.“I think that the ladies probably fit the profile of the story,” he said. “At the moment I don’t know whose idea that was; I don’t even know if they took it upon themselves to make that up.”

From 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.

From the Vancouver Sun:

“I don’t know all the details about what precisely happened that day. I want to get to the bottom of this. I don’t know if it was an overzealous employee or if this happened in a formalized way.”

That last quote an important one.  Did it happen in a formalized way?

Let me ask you this, dear reader. Take a look at our primary players for a moment.

Look at the way they are dressed.

Do these two young, successful, western women - who work as real estate agents - look to you like they came to their office that morning prepared to sell condos to their clients?

No... they are dressed to portray a stereotype.  A western stereotype - of Chinese kids from wealthy Asian families.

The insinuation from the public apology is that a couple of employees, when faced with legitimate buyers who backed out of appearing before TV cameras at the last minute, stepped up to the plate and 'play-acted' something that was would have happened anyway.

It was an impromptu thing. A spontaneous action.

So why are Chris and Amanda dressed that way? Why are they already dressed as stereotypical Asian buyers, caricatures who can now so easily step up and assume that role?

Maybe there was a legitimate couple that did back out (I don't think so, but I will explore this in another post). 

Look at the other sales staff at Maddox that day... the ones who are actually playing the role of sellers.  Are they dressed up as Asian caricatures in honour of CNY to pander to wealthy Chinese buyers?  Of course not.  Any realtor who tried that stunt would instantly offend their customers who would immediately walk out.

CBC-TV reporter Matthew Black makes it clear. While the media were at the event, he asked Maddox staff for help in finding a Chinese buyer to do an interview.  One couple suddenly decides they don't want to do interviews for the two camera crews, so Maddox staff ask Chris and Amanda (who are initially reluctant, but then acquiesce) to step in.

So we ask the question again.

If Chris and Amanda are MAC realtors at the presentation centre that day to sell condos when they see their company's photo op suddenly going bad and (on their own) they decided to do an impromptu ad-lib; how is it that they are already dressed in costume, milling in the background, willing to step up to the plate and act out the role?

Is it because that entire presentation centre is already packed with 'fake buyers' who are actually MAC employees?

At the very least it seems Chris and Amanda are there to pose as background props for the media presentation, creating the impression for the press (and the public) that the myth of the Asian buyer during CNY is alive and thriving.

And if that's the case, it means MAC set out in a premeditated fashion to fake the visual (and thus, the news) regardless of the legitimate buyer backing out.

This whole charade appears a lot more formalized than McNeill is admitting to.

The more you scrutinize it, the more questions you have.

And... oh yeah... wasn't Melanie Briggs' background in Entertainment Television?

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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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Thurs Post #5: Globe and Mail expands it's examination to other incidents of media deceit

In an earlier post we brought you the coverage of this issue by the Globe and Mail newspaper as well as pointing out that this is not the first time there have been examples of media deceit in the Lower Mainland.

Nor is it the first time MAC Marketing Solutions had a tie in with that deceit.

Well the Globe and Mail has now expanded their examination of the issue to include those other infractions.

This is the latest in a number of questionable marketing tactics to be exposed within Metro Vancouver’s real estate community. During a media blitz announcing the Groupon-style sale of units at a Surrey condo development last year, one woman identified to a television news crew as an eager local investor was in fact a sales manager for Key Marketing, the company behind the scheme.

That same company has also taken groups of Chinese buyers on helicopter tours of Metro Vancouver properties, and at least one of those trips was believed to be misleading. Garth Turner, a business journalist and former politician, reported the Chinese buyers on a Feburary, 2011, trip – on which several media outlets were invited – were in fact local real-estate agents and brokers and the trip was meant to promote a new condo development.

Cam Good, president of The Key, which includes Key Marketing, was a partner at MAC Marketing Solutions from 2004 to 2009, according to his LinkedIn page.

According to 2011 data by the Landcor Data Corporation, 75 per cent of those who purchased Metro Vancouver condos as investment properties are from Metro Vancouver. About 3 per cent are from the U.S. and 2 per cent are from other countries.

The Real Estate Council of B.C will be investigating the matter.

You can read Garth Turner's post on this issue here.

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Thurs Post #4: CBC reports MAC faces having their license's to sell real estate suspended, cancelled and/or fines of up to $20,000 - Updated

(click on all images to enlarge)

The news clip is below.

And the BC-CTV coverage:

   

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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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Thurs Post #2: Province newspaper first out of gate to expose MAC fraud

Well it seems the Vancouver Province newspaper is the first out of the gate with the MAC Marketing Solutions news fabrication story.

Titled "Vancouver real-estate firm admits faking investor for TV news", the Province tells us:

Mac Marketing Solutions admits on Facebook that it had an employee pretend, in local TV news stories about Vancouver real-estate sales, that her parents were coming from China to buy her a condo.

A Vancouver real-estate company is getting the kind of social media buzz they could surely do without, after apparently admitting to a manipulative Chinese New Year marketing scheme.

After an astute blogger noticed something fishy in several TV news stories involving Mac Marketing Solutions, the company was forced to make a statement on its Facebook page.

The blogger alleged “media manipulation” because a Mac Marketing employee appeared to have acted the part of a Chinese investor on two local TV news broadcasts.

The employee — represented as a young woman from China — suggests her parents are on the way to Vancouver to snap up a condo for her.

In a post to the company’s Facebook page under the Mac Marketing Solutions logo, an apparent spokesperson writes: “Chinese New Year is indeed a busy time across many of our communities. Last year at Maddox, we experienced increased sales volume during our Chinese New Year efforts and this year have already sold a number of homes with several more expected. We do admit we should have been more transparent about the fact that a MAC Marketing Solutions employee was included in this story.”

Multiple calls to Mac Marketing Solutions Thursday morning have yet to be returned.

Without a doubt, reporters often field real-estate story pitches and, in recent themes, marketers have focused on the voracious Chinese investor who comes to Vancouver on holiday during Chinese New Year ready to throw down cash.

On Thursday, the Mac Marketing Solutions Facebook page is getting quite a backlash against that narrative, seemingly from young Vancouverites who are fed up with high home prices and excessive greed in the city.

“Mac has admitted to perpetrating a fraud on both CBC and CTV news as well as their viewing public in conjunction to a condo development they are marketing,” Chris Bullard posted Thursday morning.

“They represented one of their employees as an out of town Asian buyer to fuel their marketing hype of the non-existent Asian real-estate invasion in Vancouver. The management of this company has no ethics and deserves to be drummed out of the business. I’m urging the authorities to charge them with fraud.”

The only clarification is that this didn't come from an 'astute blogger,' it came from the local online community in total who continuously shared the information they were finding. 

Kudos to all of you. 

After watching the 'fake' news stories involving yellow helicopters, groupon sales and one day sell outs, it's nice to finally see the media recognize some of the shenanigans that go on.

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Thur Post #1: MAC Marketing admits they mislead CBC-TV, BC-CTV and all their viewers/customers

Yesterday, on Facebook, a reader of this blog asked MAC Marketing Solutions about our Tuesday post suggesting that there may be some media manipulation going on by MAC.

The news stories showcased two sisters from China, Amanda and Chris Lee, and told us their parents would be coming to town for Chinese New Year's to buy them a Condo in Vancouver.

The story outlined how Asian buyers have been active in our dead market in recent weeks, that they were looking for many of the same things locals look for in real estate - and they're taking the plunge and buying.

The not-so-subtle message?  You should too.

Just one problem.

Not only does one of the 'sisters' happen to be a MAC employee (Amanda), but  according to her Facebook profile she's recently married. Scroll through the approximately 10 Facebook wedding photos and you can't find her 'sister' anywhere.

(Note: Amanda's Facebook account was closed to the public after it was prominently featured on this blog yesterday. Last night it had another 'alteration' when the account's last name was changed from Amanda Lee to Amanda Chu)

Yet according to the news stories arranged by MAC for CBC-TV and BC-CTV, we are to believe that Amanda Lee is looking for a condo with her 'sister' and that their parents will be coming to town to buy it for them?

Riiight.

It was all a fabrication, of course.

And in the face of the overwhelming evidence gathered by the local blogosphere, MAC had no choice but to fess up.

Chinese New Year is indeed a busy time across many of our communities. Last year at Maddox we experienced increased sales volume during our Chinese New Year efforts and this year have already sold a number of homes with several more expected. We do admit we should have been more transparent about the fact that a MAC Marketing Solutions employee was included in this story. We apologize for any misunderstanding that this may have resulted in.

Basically MAC used actors to stage a commercial for their condo development and then duped the news media to air their promotion on the 6:00 o'clock news for free.

The ethical line that has been crossed here cannot be understated.

MAC Marketing Solutions manipulated the news media to perpetuate a stereotype, then attempted to created hype around that stereotype which they hope will leverage phantom demand to encourage local buyers to "buy now before the Asian surge prices you out of the market"; all while portraying their fabrication as "news."

As one contributor noted,

This is truly insulting to thinking Chinese people. They must feel infuriated when they are stereotyped as they are in (the CTV.CBC) clip. A bimbo portraying a grown woman, waiting for parents approval to buy a home on a timeline predicated by some superstition?  

I would imagine that in reality, when a business plan is put into place by the Chinese, that no more consideration is given to the Year of the Snake than Warren Buffet gives to the horoscope.

CBC-TV reporter Matthew Black has advised me that he is following up on MAC's Facebook acknowledgement of the fraud.  

He has confirmed that he has brought the issue to his editor's attention and he was the one who posted to the Facebook thread asking for an accounting from MAC (click on image to enlarge):

Presumably there are plans, in the absence of a reply from MAC, to show up with camera's on their doorstep for some answers.

And who can blame them.

I imagine that since CTV-BC made this their lead story on last Saturday night's news, they will be keen to beat CBC to air with exposing this blatant exercise in media deception.

I mean nothing could be worse for a news outlet than finding out how your own reporters were duped by watching it explained on your rival's supper hour broadcast.

   

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Wed Post #3: MAC Marketing Solutions admits to using employee in news story

A faithful reader has sent us this screenshot of a question posted on the Facebook page for MAC Marketing Solutions.

If you go to MAC's Facebook page, it is on the right side in a section titled "Recent posts by others on MAC Marketing Solutions"

More details when I am able to post.

Hat tip RCP.

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Wed Post #2: Covering your tracks?

Is there a mad scramble on right now to remove some of the evidence about MAC Marketing Solution's Administrative Assistant Amanda Lee?

Yesterday we showed you Amanda's Facebook page which shows that there is an Amanda Lee who works at MAC Marketing Solutions. She bears a striking resemblance to the Amanda Lee who was profiled in numerous TV news pieces on the weekend. In those stories we were told she was  a young Asian buyer of real estate at a development promoted by MAC Marketing Solutions.

No mention was made in the newscasts that she actually worked for the company.

As several faithful readers have pointed out, it seems that her Facebook profile has undergone a 'cleansing'.  

Gone is the reference to her current employer MAC Marketing Solutions (replaced by her former workplace). She has also removed her profile picture as well as public access to her photo albums.

Amanda's LinkedIn profile still shows up, a profile linking her to both MAC Marketing Solutions and to the very Maddox condo development where she was portrayed as an overseas buyer...

It will be interesting to see how long before that is changed as well.

Does it serve as confirmation that the Facebook Amanda Lee (employee of MAC Marketing Solutions) is the same Amanda Lee presented to the media as an eager Asian customer for their condo development?

On another interesting note, the google search link to this LinkedIn profile doesn't lead to a profile anymore:

I'll let you draw your own conclusions.

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Wed Post #1: More on the MAC story

Yesterday's posts generated a wave of attention, and rightly so.

The hype created by Chinese New Year is crucial.  And last weekend it seemed we were hit by a media blitz from all over.

But there was a central theme to all the media hype, behind which lurked MAC Marketing Solutions.

We saw them prominently in this article in the Vancouver Sun.

 “It’s hard to say what’s going to happen this year, but I expect we will see a bump in sales activity during the month of February,” said Cameron McNeil, president of project-marketing firm MAC Marketing Solutions.

They were also front and centre in this one over on CTV.

CTV took us to the Maddox condo development in downtown Vancouver. Maddox is being marketed by MAC Marketing Solutions and as MAC's Nick Jensen explains: "It's certainly one of our biggest times of the year. We see a lot of traffic over the next two weeks... certainly these two weeks are critical to developers and really set the tone for the market ahead" 

Critical?

How critical? Critical enough to manufacture the photo op to launch this important two week period? The CTV-TV story featured two sisters who were looking to buy a condo at Maddox: Chris and Amanda Lee.

Curiously MAC Marketing Solutions has an Administrative Assistant named Amanda Lee who not only works for MAC Marketing Solutions - but her current background says she's attached to the Maddox Downtown condo development profiled in the CTV-TV.  We learned this from a LinkedIn profile:

And as we noted yesterday, this Amanda Lee has a Facebook page and bears a striking similarity to the young buyer profiled in the CTV-TV story. If the two are one and the same, it raises some serious ethical questions.

Our post yesterday also had a curious twist. 

CBC-TV reporter Matthew Black contacted this blog stating that he would "like to do a 'myth busting' style piece on the supposed spike in real estate sales during Chinese New Year."  Awesome. We humbly suggested Mr. Black could start by looking into this Ms Amanda Lee and the conflict inherent in having a sales rep pose as a buyer for a crucial press op by the developer. If this is what happened, then the crafty photo op compounds the apparent manipulation by stressing that wealthy Asians are just like you and I... and are looking for the same things in a Condo. The (not-so) subliminal message being: the Asians are buying again, you should too! Now the only problem with that suggestion is that the newsstory was done on CTV-BC.  Rarely will you see one media outlet target the content of another media outlet. (Unless it involves a politician.  Can you imagine the uproar if Christy Clark set up a photo op and used a staff member to portray a member of the public as the central part of a photo op without revealing this in a disclaimer?  The media would be all over exposing that like white on rice.  There would also be widespread media disgust at having been manipulated in this fashion) But wait! It wasn't just CTV-BC that ran coverage of the MAC photo op.  So did CBC-TV. And it was Matthew Black himself that reported the story:

   

Basinga!  The expose can begin!

Interestingly CBC-TV starts it off with it's own subliminal slight towards the developers as they appear to ask if the developers are selling snake oil hype:

The CBC-TV story focused almost exclusively on the other sister we saw in the CTV-TV story, Chris Lee.  But Amanda is prominent in the CBC version. She is seen walking around with her 'sister' and posing as an interested potential buyer: 

Will we see an expose on this by CBC-TV? 

Or could it be that this was a legitimate story. Could it be that Amanda Lee is not only a member of the MAC sales team, but is also a customer - her wealthy Asian parents coming in for CNY to purchase one of Amanda's condos for the sister duo? Or maybe they are two separate people, the similar names a mere coincidence?

For what it's worth we followed up with Mr. Black on his original email.

He tells us he has gotten a few tips from the contributors to our comments section and that it's a story he will be pressing his bosses to pursue.

We'll see what happens.

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Tues Post #2: Meet Amanda Lee on Facebook

Email inbox today is alive with links to a Facebook page for an Amanda Lee who works at MAC Marketing Solutions.

This, as you know, is a result of our earlier post today detailing how an Asian buyer profiled on a CTV story for Chinese New Year has the same name as an Administrative Assistant who works for the same marketing company selling the Condo development that CTV profiled.

'Sweety Amanda' (the url link to her profile name) has a number of photos set to public viewing (provided you are logged in to Facebook on your own account), so let's check them out (click on all images to enlarge).

The two above photos are from 2009, four years ago.

This is the Amanda Lee from the CTV news story:

Are they one and the same? You decide:

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Tues Post #1: Media Manipulation? You decide.

Took a break for the long weekend, but let's pick up where we left off.

On Thursday we talked about all the hype in the real estate world with the upcoming Chinese New Year.

We told you about an article in the Vancouver Sun:  Realtors prep for Lunar New Year upswing in sales - In previous years, industry gets a bump during holiday time in China.

 “It’s hard to say what’s going to happen this year, but I expect we will see a bump in sales activity during the month of February,” said Cameron McNeil, president of project-marketing firm MAC Marketing Solutions.

Take note of that company, MAC Marketing Solutions. We'll be coming back to that shortly.

For now, back to the Sun article

McNeil said Asian buyers have been more active in the Metro Vancouver market in recent weeks than they were through the middle of 2012.

Asian buyer have been more active in the Metro Vancouver market in recent weeks?

We laughed at that on Thursday.  Smacks of media created hype to us, another lame attempt to generate phantom demand as a lever to encourage buyers to "buy now before the Asian surge prices you out of the market".

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.”

Buyers are taking their time, McNeil said, but for developments in good locations with “fair values, prices aren’t coming off and are selling very well.”

He added that locations with established neighbourhoods, good schools and proximity to rapid transit are popular

As frequent poster, Bo Xilai, noted:

Yeah, I can see wealthy Mainland Chinese buyers consider proximity to rapid transit as being SUPER important to their buying decision.

Why take the Bentley when you can ride the Canada Line?

Maybe Mr. MacNeil is trying to get his real audience – brokeass first time home buyers – off the fence.

That is exactly what we think the entire 'media campaign is all about, manipulating local first time home  buyers off their collective butts to get into the market.

All weekend long, articles appeared promoting this thread.

Perhaps the best was this one over on CTV. The title of the news piece: "Year of the Snake nets condo sales: developers"


CTV takes us to the Maddox condo development in downtown Vancouver. Maddox is being marketed by MAC Marketing Solutions... yes, the same MAC Marketing Solutions from the Vancouver Sun article on Thursday.

In the Maddox display suite, CTV introduces us to two potential Asian buyers.

Chris Lee, who moved to Vancouver from China two years ago, said she and her sister are looking to buy a hip downtown condo, and now that their parents are in town for two weeks celebrating Chinese New Year, they have financial help. 

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

Condo developers embraced the influx of offshore buyers, with some companies bringing in additional Chinese-speaking staff to help sell units.

Chris does all the talking, but the two sisters are identified in the story. They Amanda Lee and Chris Lee.

So let's summarize here for a moment.  

The market is in a deep slump, but we get a big media blitz for Chinese New Year telling everyone the market is suddenly "alive in recent weeks with Asian buyers." Asian buyers who are looking for the same sort things in real estate that local buyers are looking for.

At the heart of the media blitz is MAC Marketing Systems. They conveniently back up their media campaign with two classic children of wealthy Asian parents, parents who are coming to town to buy them a condo for CNY.

See?  The market is alive and well... the overseas Asians are buying again, are you going to be left out?

Hmmm.

Not so fast though. These 'overseas wealthy Asians' might not be as 'overseas' as we have been lead to believe.

I know when I first saw this clip, the spidey senses were a-tingling. Didn't we see something like this last year when one of Cam Good's salespersons posed as a groupon condo buyer for Global TV? 

Other skeptics were having their doubts too. Over on VCI, Saint Patrick dug up an interesting profile on linkedin (click on image to enlarge):

Yep... you read that right.  

Coincidence of coincidences, MAC Marketing Solutions has an Administrative Assistant named Amanda Lee who not only works for MAC Marketing Solutions - but her current background says she's attached to the Maddox Downtown condo development. 

You don't say?  No ethic issues here, move along... I'm sure it's just a coincidence.

The weekend was topped off by an interesting email in my in-basket which I have only gotten around to reading early this morning.  It is from Matthew Black, a reporter from CBC-TV:

Hello, 

My name is Matthew Black and I'm a reporter with CBC Vancouver TV. 

I 'm looking to a 'myth busting' style piece on the supposed spike in real estate sales during Chinese New Year. I was quite interested by your blog posts on this subject. 

Would you be available to chat sometime today? I can be reached at 604.XXX.XXX or on my cell at 778.XXX.XXX 

-Matthew Black CBC News Vancouver

Appreciate the email, Matthew.  But the reality is that an anonymous blogger may not be the best interview for a TV reporter (kinda defeats the whole 'anonymous' thing).

But if you're up for it, I'd be willing to bet Amanda Lee would make a great focus for a 'myth busting style news piece.'

If the CTV Amanda and the MAC Marketing Solutions Amanda are both one and the same, why is the media standing by while the public is blatantly manipulated by the real estate industry in this fashion?

See if you can get her parents too. I understand they're in town this week.

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