To publicly reassert OgilvyOne’s commitment to selling and demonstrate its digital marketing expertise, the agency launched the Search for the World's Greatest Salesperson.

A global contest in 14 countries, professional and amateur persuaders were challenged to first convincingly sell a simple red brick at our YouTube channel. The contest harnessed video, social media, public relations, search marketing, internal communications, guerrilla, events and TV, online, ambient and print advertising.Inspired by the popular vote, client and industry judges chose a select few to write an essay about what sales should look like. Then, on stage at our Cannes Lions seminar, three finalists competed with a client product for the title, for a job at OgilvyOne - and a place in immortality. The campaign generated over $2m in earned media impressions, attracted the lion’s share of buzz at Cannes, and resulted in a 14% lift in revenue in the markets where the contest ran.

Launched with a feature story in The New York Times on March 29, the contest ran on Ogilvy’s YouTube channel until mid-May and culminated June 21 at Cannes.

A series of video shorts highlighting sales techniques ("The Moves") were created and distributed across video sharing sites such as YouTube, Vimeo and DailyMotion, driving up search results and passed along social networks.

Twitter tracked the contest, LinkedIn hosted conversations, SlideShare delivered content, and blog outreach tackled comments especially among sceptical sales professionals. Offices in participating markets mobilized with local media, special events, staff emails, posters, career classifieds and guerrilla marketing such as postings on Craigslist.com.Inspired by popular vote, client and industry judges chose a few to craft an essay on the future of sales. Three finalists competed on stage at Cannes with a client product for the title, for a job at OgilvyOne — and a place in immortality.

234 videos selling a red brick were submitted from 12 countries, leading to more than 5,000 public votes. This exceeded industry benchmarks for user-generated videos, our own past client experience with video contests and the estimate YouTube provided. All without a cash prize.The program has an estimated US$2 million in value across key markets where the agency does business, reaffirming our reputation and building equity we could not accomplish with traditional advertising. In addition to the New York Times, coverage worldwide included a morning show live interview on "Sunrise Australia," NBC Philadelphia, NPR, 1010 WINS and in publications as diverse as Contagious, The Economic Times in India, Brasil Economico, Forbes.com, Singapore’s Today “Impact” and Japan’s Brain.

Ogilvy’s Facebook group grew 75% and 700+ people joined the Twitter Sell or Else feed. Within 24 hours, How to Sell: Tips from David Ogilvy was the most popular item on SlideShare.