The Advertising Standards Authority has banned an advertisement from SpicerHaart Group for being misleading after claiming that a branch of haart was “the number one estate agent” in its area.
The local newspaper advertisement for haart in Harlow, Essex, said: “We are proud to be the number one estate agent in Harlow. More Sold boards than any other agent.”
However, the claim was based on ‘virtual’ rather than actual sales boards.
The advertisement showed a pie chart breaking down market share by business. Small print stated that the source was vizzihomes.com and that due to variations on publishing policies, not all agents and properties might be represented.
Kings Group, a competitor, objected to the claim and said it was misleading, because the data taken from vizzihomes.com was not a reliable record of market share as it was based on unregulated self-reporting by agents.
It also argued that the claim, “More Sold boards than any other agent”, was misleading, because it implied the data was based on Sold board presence, whereas it only represented web presence; it further argued that the way the information was collected meant that it did not represent a defined area that readers would understand as ‘Harlow’.
SpicerHaart told the ASA that Vizzihomes carried out careful research and based its ‘virtual board’ findings on the internet property listings of agents in a particular area at a particular time. It said that the Vizzihomes data was more likely to provide an accurate picture of market share than looking at Sold boards, because all properties were advertised online, but not all vendors put Sold properties outside their properties, and this could skew market data.
It had amended the advertisement to refer to local postcodes, to clarify the geographic area described in the advertisement.
But the ASA considered that the claim “the number one estate agent in Harlow” was likely to be interpreted by readers to mean that haart had sold more homes in Harlow. It said that Vizzihomes could not be certain that all properties were included in its data.
The ASA said the advertisement could not be repeated in the form that had led to the objections.
Comments
Who would want to be the number 1 estate agent in Harlow?
Can the OFT check if Haart should really be allowed to use the term "Estate Agents"?
Data Fairy.............Ive heard that the information is coming from RM
Market inteligence on these sites they mainly get it from "Rightmove" can be gathered and arranged in a way to suit! weekly monthly daily postcode etc etc to produce charts graphs and stats. i have played with one of these and ven if you are the worst in town you can always find something to show.....that you are "the best"! its very misleading.
Was my comments to close to the truth, i see my remarks have been removed aswell
Oh no, I fear for the Haart employees who's comments have been deleted.... are you still out there?
Shhhh... dont say anything or the thought police will get you.....
Tut Tut Vizzi pointing the figure. That does not seem very supportive of one of your largest customers! If you look at the ASA web site it states they are not satisfied with Vizzihome as the source of information despite disclaimers so it makes no difference how it's worded or how Haart used it.
Hello vizzihome, you're probably best placed to answer my question below. Where does all this data come from?
In their banned advertisement Haart clearly used unauthorized terminology such as:
“The number one estate agent"
“More Sold boards than any other agent."
The use of the word “Harlow” rather than the relevant postcodes
As detailed in our contract and terms of use, any claims must comply with our terms of use. You may only make use of the Top Agent Certificate (see attached) available on the Website (“TAC”). The TAC may only be used by reproduction in full without alteration and of sufficient scale that all elements are legible. Any agents complying with Vizzihome terms of use should have no problems with the ASA
So where do vizzihome actually get this data from? Do they buy it or do they scrape it? And from which portals? Is RM selling our data....? Are they allowed to do that? (RM sell it or vizzi scrape it?) Does anyone know or am I just being dense?!
Paul, Trading Standards are the guys to call for flyboarding. They're really hot on it up our neck of the woods and in some cases I have heard of agents being charged per dodgy board.
I have complained to the council a few times about boards that should not be up (I own the properties on 2 occasions) and the council have told me there is nothing they can do. Who polices it?
Real, I agree, but at least board presence is in some way regulated and there are people you can complain to when flyboarders attack. Nobody polices the internet in the same way because it's impossible.
All claims like this should be banned. We have a local agent who makes this kind of claim based on actual board presence but stick up phoney boards before the count and remove them afterwards - it's a form of deception - it should be banned because it's all subject to massage and spin!
Another example of the world gone mad! Anyone with any sense knows that you can not use what’s on the internet for market share. We all know agents who use Rightmove to create an impression of how "well" their doing or to reload older stock that has gone stale. What’s even more alarming is that Spicer Haart understand this. Haven’t we just heard from Paul Smith on this very subject in an article in EAN entitled “massaging the figures devalues system for everyone”. Why would you then knowing put yourself in the firing line? Barmy.
I think it's completely diabolicalisational!
The pot calling the kettle black I think! ''Kings were formed in 1991 and have quickly established themselves as market leaders''. A quote from the Kings Group on rightmove.
Kings have a fair point here; online stats are ok for at a glance figures but you can't rely on them for advertising purposes. Lets face it - we all know how to make our stats look better on RM. I'm not saying that all agents are fudging the figures but anyone can make themselves look good online!