Selling ads: brick by brick

Advertising giant OgilvyOne recently kicked off its contest to find the “World’s Greatest Salesman.” The New York agency is challenging people to sell a brick—a plain red brick—in one to two minutes, and then upload their pitch on OgilvyOne’s YouTube channel. The winner gets a three-month fellowship at the agency, and most likely, a whole bunch of hits on his/her video.

OgilvyOne has no shortage of job applicants; the contest is simply an attempt to “reinvigorate the noble art of salesmanship,” according to the call for entry site. The art mentioned is the craft and method of the agency’s founder, David Ogilvy. He built his legacy with the skills he acquired selling stoves door-to-door. In today’s agency though, creatives don’t go door-to-door. Instead, they face consumers with the copy and visuals of their ads.

So what does selling a brick have to do with creating ads?

Well, the brick, in this case, represents the “idea.” It’s essential for creatives to first create the idea of course, but then to sell the idea – all the way up the chain: writers and art directors have to sell each other on the idea first. Then, they sell their creative director on the idea. The creative director sells it to the account team, who sells it to the client (hopefully), who in turn, sells it to the consumer in the form of a finished ad.

So perhaps OgilvyOne should also keep an eye out for folks who can not only sell “bricks,” but also ones who can create them; and then hope those bricks are made of gold.