Search Narrows for World's Greatest Salesperson

NEW YORK, June 9 /PRNewswire/ -- With over 230 entries from 12 countries, the search for the World's Greatest Salesperson narrowed today as OgilvyOne Worldwide announced the names of the three finalists who will travel to Cannes to pitch live on stage for the coveted title.

Y. Lee Abbas from Hokkaido, Japan, Todd Herman from Edmonton, Canada, and Eric Polins from Tampa, USA were the three finalists selected. They will appear at a special seminar at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival in France on Monday June 21. The winning video submissions by each of the finalists can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/ogilvy.

During the Cannes seminar, the audience will vote real-time for the ultimate winner, who will be named the "World's Greatest Salesperson" and will receive a three month fellowship with OgilvyOne to help craft the sales guide to the 21st century.

"We've been blown away by the creativity, enthusiasm and digital savvy that we've encountered on our quest to find the World's Greatest Salesperson," said Mat Zucker, Executive Creative Director of OgilvyOne in New York and the originator of the contest. "Choosing only three finalists from such an impressive field has been the most challenging part for us so far – but what impressed us the most about the finalists was their approach to the changing nature of sales."

In recognition of the creativity and contribution of another eight contestants from countries including India, Germany, the UK and USA, OgilvyOne has created an "Honor Roll." The highly commended video submissions from these contestants will be displayed on the YouTube brand channel.

"We're excited by the overwhelming interest in salesmanship and the caliber of talent that the contest has attracted. We look forward to working with the ultimate winner to redefine and reinvent selling for the 21st century," said Brian Fetherstonhaugh, Chairman and CEO of OgilvyOne Worldwide.

Tapping several tools of the sales trade, OgilvyOne is on a mission to reinvigorate the noble art of salesmanship and the credo of its founder David Ogilvy who said, "We sell, or else." To that end, OgilvyOne launched a global search to find the world's greatest salesperson through an online video competition on YouTube where contestants were asked to submit a two minute pitch on how they would sell a red brick.

For details on the contest visit:

http://www.youtube.com/ogilvy

http://www.facebook.com/ogilvy

http://twitter.com/Sell_Or_Else/

http://www.linkedin.com/in/worldsgreatestsalesperson

About OgilvyOne Worldwide  

OgilvyOne Worldwide is the strongest, most experienced and most highly awarded one-to-one marketing network in the world, with over 120 offices in 50 countries. It provides clients with a full range of direct, consulting and interactive services to deliver profitable customer relationships.  The roster of clients is equally balanced between global clients including American Express, Cisco, IBM, Lenovo, Nestle, SAP and Unilever, and leading clients in our local markets. OgilvyOne Worldwide is a unit of The Ogilvy Group, a WPP company (Nasdaq: WPPGY), one of the world's largest communications services groups.

SOURCE Ogilvy & Mather