Todd Herman, of Edmonton, Alberta, won a contest, sponsored by OgilvyOne Worldwide, to find “the world’s greatest salesperson.”A winner has been selected in a contest sponsored by OgilvyOne Worldwide to find “the world’s greatest salesperson” — a person proficient enough in pitching to be able to sell a common brick.
The contest is also serving as the inspiration for a new online reality series.
Todd Herman, of Edmonton, Alberta, was chosen as the winner on Monday during a seminar at the Cannes Lion International Advertising Festival in Cannes, France. You can watch his presentation here.
Mr. Herman, who makes a living as a performance coach and trainer, was picked by a live audience after he and two other finalists made presentations on how to sell the Motorola Droid smartphone, known as the Milestone overseas.
To enter, the contestants had to submit video clips in which they offered ideas on how to peddle everyday bricks.
The other finalists were Lee Abbas, of Hokkaido, Japan, and Eric Polins, of Tampa, Fla.
In addition to his new fanciful title, Mr. Herman wins something a bit more tangible: a three-month internship at OgilvyOne, part of the Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide unit of WPP, to help in a project to write what the agency is calling a sales guide for the 21st century.
The guide is to be presented at the annual conference of the Direct Marketing Association, to be held in San Francisco in October.
As for the online reality series, it will be presented by OgilvyOne and a sibling, OgilvyEntertainment, in collaboration with the MSN unit of Microsoft and a content-development company named Generate.
The series will be devoted the subject of selling and composed of 30-minute Webisodes. More details are to be announced at a later date.