THE CONTEST
OgilvyOne chose a popular format for its greatest salesperson contest. Entrants prepared one- to two-minute video clips selling the assigned product and submitted them via YouTube. Viewers voted for their favorite videos, and a panel of judges winnowed the field down to a set of finalists. But the product that contestants were assigned to sell was anything but the usual. They weren’t asked to sell a glitzy new smartphone or super-thin large screen TV. Instead, they had to make a pitch for a brick. That’s right, a common, and everyday red brick. Why a brick? “If you can sell a red brick, maybe you can sell anything,” said Mat Zucker, executive creative director for OgilvyOne and the creator of the contest. Some people at Ogilvy pushed for a more exciting product. But Mish Fletcher, worldwide marketing director at OgilvyOne, pointed out that perhaps those exciting products don’t need “the world’s greatest salesperson” as much.