RISMedia and REAL Trends, the nation’s leading real estate industry media organizations, ranked Pacific Union International, Inc. the eighth-largest residential real estate brokerage in the U.S., with 2016 sales volume of $10.15 billion. The RISMedia and REAL Trends rankings cap a year of outstanding expansion for Pacific Union. Posting an impressive 23 percent growth rate over last year’s sales volume, the California-based brokerage led by CEO Mark A. McLaughlin moves up the list from ninth place in 2015.
Propelling this jump is Pacific Union’s newly expanded reach into the white-hot Los Angeles market through its December 2016 merger with luxury brokerage John Aaroe Group. With more than 400 real estate professionals, John Aaroe Group’s current operation is comparable in size to Pacific Union in 2009 when McLaughlin acquired the San Francisco-based brokerage. Pacific Union expects to execute a similarly aggressive growth trajectory with John Aaroe Group throughout Southern California.

The combined California brokerages support over 1,100 elite real estate professionals spanning the state, including a stellar team at The Mark Company, the premier sales and marketing firm for new luxury urban developments in the Western U.S. Pacific Union acquired The Mark Company in 2015, and the company drives sales and marketing efforts for landmark developments, including Los Angeles’ $1 billion Oceanwide Plaza Residences and San Francisco’s ultraluxurious 181 Fremont Residences.
Beyond growth through acquisition, Pacific Union’s gain is fueled by the success of a record-shattering global digital marketing campaign launched in the summer of 2016, which resulted in a remarkable 171 percent increase in traffic to the brokerage’s website. The campaign was created as McLaughlin accelerated efforts to establish Pacific Union’s independence and preeminence in leading real estate capitals of the world.
“The results of our Pacific Union digital advertising campaign in The United Kingdom, China, India, and Brazil are stunning,” McLaughlin says. “We are seeing exponential increases in our website’s global user sessions that are driven directly by this campaign.
Conceived for Pacific Union by advertising powerhouse, Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide, the campaign’s results exceed past international outreach efforts, including those delivered by Christie’s International Real Estate, an affiliation that was formerly a driver for Pacific Union’s global reach. On Jan. 1, 2017, Pacific Union and John Aaroe Group increased 2017 investments to extend these independent digital campaigns in Brazil, India, China, and the U.K. The year-to-date campaign results have delivered more than 60 million global impressions and 245,000 international site visits to www.PacificUnion.com