So that is that… 50 days, 9 countries, 23 flights, 13 hotels and one incident of lost luggage has come to an unfortunate end for ‘The Ultimate Job Interview’ brought to you by adidas Golf and COOLMAX Brand. As I start to write my final blog in London Heathrow Airport awaiting my final flight back home fond memories which I will cherish forever flow through my mind which was spent with Chris, Steve and the WITW Team.

It is as if it was only yesterday that I met the guys in Nurnberg for the start of this epic adventure where two US Citizens would be put through their paces head-to-head in competing for a job with adidas Golf USA as the newest addition to the Team- Social Media Catalyst.

The result is out and it has been decided that Steve is the winner of the adidas Wear In The World campaign. Congratulations on a job well done over the last 50 days and I personally wish you all of the best with your new position as Social Media Catalyst at adidas Headquarters in Carlsbad. Not too bad for a guy from Wisconsin, Go Packers! ! !

Congratulations must also go out to Chris on a fine performance, he definitely threw himself out there tackling everything that came his way head on. He poured his heart into the campaign, giving it his all and I take my hat off to you for your dedication and I am sure many opportunities will come your way in the near future.

With spending every second with the Team over the last 50 days getting to know each other was a great pleasure, one of the greatest things I have taken away from this experience is the friendships I have made, especially with Chris, Steve, Jeff and Aaron S. It was an absolute pleasure working with all of you and I look forward to the reunion we will be having (I suggest Whistler)

Many thanks needs to go out especially to the following:

adidas Golf USA for coming up with the campaign and putting everything together, especially to Mark Elder, Angeline Merlitti and our hosts in every country. Thank you and congratulations for all of your hard work, it really is appreciated.

The main sponsor, COOLMAX Brands, who contributed towards making this campaign possible. Your products found in the adidas Apparel (CoolMax Technologies) are truly one of a kind which we had the privilege of testing out in some harsh conditions. At every hurdle we were faced CoolMax Technologies defeated the elements on every occasion.

Jeff Dolen and Aaron Schnobrich for your time and effort put in filming during the day and editing in the evening, day after day and posting such great footage for the world to view every morning (editing usually took place between 7pm and 3am every day).

And lastly I would like to thank you, the WITW follower, for joining us during our travels over the last 50 days. Your support and messages helped during the toughest of times, especially when one was having a bad day it was revitalizing reading your kind words.

Well I hope you all enjoyed following us as much as we enjoyed putting everything together. I am signing out for the last time from home in Cape Town, South Africa.

Until next time…

Aaron Russell

adidas WITW Host

Today we played Bandon Dunes, which marks the last golf round of the WITW adventure. What a ride it has been over the last 50 days. I am so thankful for the opportunity adidas Golf has given me. A couple months ago, I could have never imagined traveling the world, making hundreds of new friends and pushing myself to do activities I never thought possible (like paragliding.)

Today’s round was special because I got to play with my dad. My parents decided to fly out to Oregon for a little vacation before going back to work next week. It was so great to see them in the airport and have the opportunity to play golf with my Dad at one of the best golf courses in the US. We didn’t keep a close score, but I think I pulled it out and beat him today!

Our group at Bandon Dunes (My Dad and Mark Hepler from adidas Golf)

The course was absolutely beautiful, like every course here. Starting on the back nine, the fog started to pick up and we actually played the last four holes in complete fog cover. I can say I have never experienced standing on a tee and hitting a drive into a wall of fog. Luckily we had caddies to guide us, otherwise I think we would still be trying to find our way around the course.

From tee box on 16 at Bandon Dunes.

I also had the opportunity to wear the new Traxion Lite golf shoes today. These spikeless shoes don’t come out until this October. I really liked them because it felt like a tennis shoe, but performed like a golf shoe. I didn’t slip once while hitting on the course. I think these are perfect for a quick 9 holes or going to the driving range. Plus, they are Wisconsin Badger colors!

Traxion Lite golf shoes out this October.

With that, the Wear in the World adventure has wrapped up. I know a lot of people are dying to know the results but cannot say just yet. The announcement will be coming very soon on (adidasgolf.com/WITW). Stay tuned!

I want to thank everyone who followed me on this amazing adventure. All your support, comments and feedback were very helpful and made this experience even better. I also want to thank adidas Golf and all our hosts across the world. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity that I will never forget. If you want to keep in touch with me, find me on Facebook or feel free to email me steveoly@gmail.com.

Steve Olsen

www.facebook.com/SteveWITW
www.twitter.com/SteveWITW

As I was getting ready to wrap things up and head back home to Portland I decided to sort through and organize all of the photos I took along the way.  I realized that I took a staggering amount…and quite a few good ones!  As such, I figured I’d wrap this all up with my favorite picture from each location:

Germany:

Norway:

Scotland:

Dubai:

Thailand:

South Korea:

Japan:

Canada:

Bandon Dunes:

The final results were just told to Steve and I, though they won’t be made public for a bit.  The winner will be announced soon so keep an eye on http://wearintheworld.adidasgolf.com/ to see the final results!

That’s it from me for now.  Thanks again to all of those who followed along and helped me out along the way.  If you’d like to stay in touch with me please feel free to contact me via my personal facebook page (www.facebook.com/c.dukeminier note: you’ll need to log-in to facebook first) or email (c.dukem@gmail.com).

Until next time, so long!

–
chris dukeminier
www.facebook.com/c.dukeminier
c.dukem@gmail.com

Our group at Pacific Dunes.

Today we played 36 holes at Bandon Dunes. In the morning we played Pacific Dunes, and in the afternoon we played the newsest course, Old Macdonald. Both of these courses are ranked among the best in the US. Chris and I had the privilege of playing with Shane Bacon from Yahoo Sports and Jim Achenbach from Golfweek in the morning.

The most interesting part for me was the weather in Oregon. Over the course of 18 holes, the weather went from sunny to rainy/windy to freezing cold and back to sunny. It now makes sense why the caddies chose the adidas ClimaProof Storm rain suit for their official caddie suit. They wanted a rain suit that will protect them from the rain, but also be comfortable when the weather changes literally within minutes.

Pacific Dunes and Old Macdonald are two completely different courses, but both absolutely stunning. I played so-so in the morning (think I had a jet-lag swing) and came back strong in the afternoon to shoot 79.

Pacific Dunes

Just before we were heading out to play Old Macdonald in the afternoon, Chris and I were each given a pair of the new AdiPURE Z shoes. I wore the all black. This golf shoe doesn’t come out until September, but we were able to play the second 18 with them. I absolutely love this shoe. It is extremely comfortable, has all the technology and looks great. I also really like the stitching on the shoe.

Old Macdonald (hole modeled after Road Hole at St. Andrews).

Luckily we had caddies all day. I don’t think I would have survived carrying my bag for 36 holes! Even our director, Jeff, had Aaron as his caddie!

Jeff with his caddie, Aaron.

Tomorrow we are playing Pacific Trails and interviewing with the director of marketing for adidas Golf. Wish me luck!

Steve

www.facebook.com/SteveWITW
www.twitter.com/SteveWITW

A few years back I took my first actual job as a caddie at Bandon Dunes.  I guess it’s fitting that I may be getting my next job while at Bandon Dunes as well!

The competitions part of Wear In The World is now over.  Steve eked out the W, though with the help of my followers I was able to keep it very close.  The good news is, with tomorrow’s final interview I’m easily within striking distance of the overall victory (and of course the job that comes along with it!).  It’ll all on me now, but I’d like to thank all of you that helped put me in this position!

As for today, it was all about golf…just as it should be at Bandon Dunes.  We started on Pacific Dunes at 7:00am today.  Pacific Dunes was always my favorite course at Bandon back when I was a caddie and got to play the courses a lot and it didn’t disappoint.  As always the course was simply spectacular and in great condition.  The caddies were great.  The weather was solid.  Golf doesn’t get much better than this!  It of course helped that I played pretty well and shot 74.

After the morning round we went over to play Old Macdonald, the newest course at Bandon.  I’d never played Old Mac, but had heard nothing but rave reviews so I was excited to get the chance to play.

Even better, adidas gave me a pair of the new adiPURE Z shoes about a month before they’ll be up for sale.  While I didn’t play quite as well in the afternoon (77) I had a blast and was very impressed with the course.  The shoes were outstanding as well.  All the comfort of the standard adiPURE, but with a more classic look that I’m a huge fan of.

Tomorrow is the final day of WITW.  I’m looking forward to getting home, but this has been one incredible ride that I’ll certainly never forget!  I hope tomorrow goes well, but either way I’ll write with the results.

–
chris dukeminier
www.facebook.com/cdukeWITW
www.twitter.com/chrisWITW

http://www.youtube.com/user/adidasGolfUSA#p/u/0/kHGuTFhPwf4

I thought up a few more ad ideas over the past day and figured I’d give them each a quick write-up:

Sergio starts Twitter:

Scene 1: Sergio Garcia arrives in a new town and sends out a tweet asking “what is there to do here?”

Scene 2: Sergio starts seeing tweets about places to go

Scene 3: The places are crazy but Sergio goes anyway. He goes scuba diving, sky diving, running with the bulls, eating bugs…

Scene 4: Cut to other adidas Golf pros all on their phones together sending tweets to Sergio and laughing at him

End card 1: adidas Golf apparel and footwear…equipment for any condition

End card 2: On (specific date) tweet what you’d like to see Sergio do @TheSergioGarcia

The idea here is to show that adidas Golf apparel works everywhere and generate interest in a twitter event where users can interact with Sergio by recommending activities that he can do. Sergio will have a film crew follow him that day that will follow him as he does some of the suggested activities. This should generate quite a bit of social media interaction.

Golf shoes with ThinTech:

Scene 1: Very tall man (perhaps an adidas basketball player) puts on some generic golf shoes

Scene 2: Tall man is shown in various scenarios where his head hits things (ie. signs, door jams, trees…)

Scene 3: adidas tour pro hands him a pair of adidas Golf shoes with ThinTech

Scene 4: Tall man can now walk anywhere he wants without hitting his head (happy go lucky music in background)

End card: adidas Golf Tour 360 with ThinTech…lower is better The idea here is to make a bit of a joke about how ThinTech keeps you lower to the ground. I’ve always found that a bit of humor goes a long way in making an ad memorable.

Hope you enjoyed watching these as much as I enjoyed making and writing them!

I have at least 3 post-trip interviews set-up at this point, so hopefully I’ll going on with good news!

I’ll write again tomorrow.

–
chris dukeminier
www.facebook.com/cdukeWITW
www.twitter.com/chrisWITW

We had a couple hour layover in Portland, so I decided to use that opportunity to continue to work on follow-up media interviews with the ones I set up while on the trip. So far, I have confirmed a follow up TV interview with WBAY-TV in Green Bay and the Evans Scholars foundation will be featuring me and the WITW adventure once its newly designed site goes live end of this month. I will be following up with Fox47 TV in Madison and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel newspaper as well.

We have a full day of golf tomorrow. I have heard many great things about Bandon Dunes and am really excited to play. Also, I just watched the latest video and looks like the ice putting with the hockey players didn’t make the final cut.

Steve

www.facebook.com/SteveWITW
www.twitter.com/SteveWITW

I apologize if you dislike 80s hair metal, but the sing just fits so perfectly.

Anyway, as you probably gathered we’re on our final day before we head back to the States for our final formal interviews.  I set up a little “demo day” today at University Golf Club, the busiest course in Vancouver.  I was there from 10am until noon running a putting contest.  I decided to keep the contest REALLY simple which allowed me to chat with the people in more detail about my adventure and some of the adidas product I was wearing.  I also was giving away a few free rounds of golf at the course and an adidas gift card.

The planning for the event started yesterday as I made a few signs and dropped them off at the course to be posted.

I then hit up twitter and got a few prominent Vancouver folks to help me out a bit, including the University Golf Club account, @UniversityGolf.

I set-up on the putting green next to the first tee which allowed me to talk to every group as they approached the course.  It happened to be ladies day, so I got to meet quite a few ladies as they got ready for their rounds.  Virtually all of them were pumped about getting a chance to putt against me and maybe win some free stuff.  All each contestant had to do was tie or beat me to be entered into the drawing.  These two in particular were sort of bummed when I rolled my first putt up to about 3″ from 30 feet.  Then they got really excited when they both rolled it straight in the cup after me.  They asked if I could just caddie for them for the rest of the day!

Sorry ladies, I’d love to, but I’m off to Oregon this afternoon!

I also met a few University of BC students, one of which I called Z.

Z had on maybe my favorite pair of shoes I’ve seen on the trip, some Powerbands with the Canadian flag on them.  They matched my Canadian flag TaylorMade Penta ball perfectly!

I asked Z about his shoes and he mentioned that they are his favorite golf shoes he’s ever worn.  He had some competitor shoes before, but liked his Powerbands better for both stability and comfort.  I’ve been mainly wearing AdiPure and Tour360s on this trip, but I’ve worn Powerbands before and have to agree, they’re pretty amazing.

With about 30 min left to go in my time at the course there was a lull in tee-times.  Not good for me.  Luckily at just that time some UBC students showed up with 18 kids, ages about 5-10.  The kids were at a summer camp and were doing a session on golf.  Corralling 18 kids of that age on a putting green is nearly impossible, but we did manage to do it briefly for a quick photo:

I also was able to chat to a few of the kids.  The most talkative of the bunch was Callem:

Callem is actually from London, but his family recently moved to Canada.  He was already off to a good start with some adidas shoes so I let him borrow my TaylorMade putter for a bit.  Who knows, maybe he’ll be wearing adidas and playing TaylorMade on tour someday!

My last activity before heading out to the airport was to meet the course’s dog, Bailey.  Bailey really wants you to go to http://wearintheworld.adidasgolf.com/ and vote for Chris!

Next time you hear from me I’ll be on home turf in Oregon!

–
chris dukeminier
www.facebook.com/cdukeWITW
www.twitter.com/chrisWITW

What I haven’t shown yet is a campaign concept for adidas Golf’s social media if I win the WITW adventure and a job with adidas. Without further ado, here is my first idea with the opening viral video…

This idea has been 50 days in the making. I started to think about what I am calling “Global Golf” in Germany. adidas Golf makes equipment for your body. It is all about performance targeted to the golfer athlete. This idea can be spread across many forms of communication: print, outdoor, TV and radio along with social media. Below is a possible direction of a print ad for this campaign.

From the WITW adventure, I have truly seen how global the adidas brand is. I think the message of this idea “Wear in the World are you golfing with your adidas Golf equipment?” fits into the brand and has many potential legs beyond this. Some thoughts on how this idea can expand are:

• Have golfers tweet or Facebook message where they are golfing.
• Photo or video contest of golfers across the globe.
• Get TMaG PGA staff players to participate with the consumers.
• Replace myself in the promo video with TMaG staff players as they play in tournaments across the world.
• This could lead into a WITW adventure3. I am thinking a blend of Amazing Race and Big Break (on the Golf Channel.)

My goal for this idea is to have “golf athletes” thinking about adidas Golf equipment while playing. An example of success for this idea would be to have someone make an amazing putt in their ClimaCool shirt, grab there Iphone, take a photo and quickly submit to adidas Golf.

I think this could be a great first idea to present to the adidas Golf marketing team. There are still a few wrinkles to iron out, but I think it’s a great start.

SALARY DONATION FINAL TOTAL

I want to thank everyone who tweeted, posted on Facebook or simply told there friends, family and relatives about my promotion and the WITW adventure. The challenge was simple, for every new follower or fan on Twitter and Facebook from July 27th – August 10th, I would donate $1 of my salary to some great golf charities.

Since the promotion, I now have:
Facebook: 707 fans
Twitter: 232 followers

In total, that is 244 new followers of the WITW adventure and $244 of my salary that will be donated. I am going to round that up to $250 and will donate to the Evans Scholars foundation and Golf Roots in Europe. I am so happy to donate part of my salary to great golf foundations that have had a positive impact on my life.

ONE FINAL PROMOTION

I went out around noon today for one final promotion of the WITW adventure and myself. I walked to Robson Street, which is a pedestrian-only street filled with shops and restaurants. I decided to promote in a way I haven’t tried yet, using myself as a billboard to promote my Facebook page. This was a very simple, yet highly effective promo, and I purposely used the two most contrasting colors so I would be noticed. I had a lot of people stop and ask what the Facebook page was for on my shirt and then told them about the WITW adventure. Hopefully there will be many more followers after today!

Guerilla marketing at its finest!

HAIRCUT

I also stopped quickly to get a haircut so I look presentable to the adidas Golf marketing team tonight. I found a great Barber Shop. Bryan, originally from the UK (his distinct accent gave it away), couldn’t believe I was on camera with my hair looking the way it did. Bryan cuts the hair of many sports commentators in the Vancouver area. I gave him a few extra cards so he could pass my adventure onto them and hopefully an interview will arise. After a few dirty jokes, some laughs and a lot of hair on the ground, I am now ready for the USA. Bryan said that I am absolutely going to win the job now because of the great haircut. I sure hope he is right!

Me and Bryan the barber

It has been an unbelievable journey since I left the US on June 25th. Looking forward to Bandon Dunes and hopefully some great news later in the week!

Steve

www.facebook.com/SteveWITW
www.twitter.com/SteveWITW

Today was a “free” day in that we didn’t have any scheduled challenges, so it was up to Steve and I to promote ourselves, WITW, and adidas Golf product.  I had a few ideas that I worked on today…some went well while others were a bit of a struggle.

My very first activity was to reach out to the TMaG reps in Vancouver and work on setting up a demo day at the busiest golf course in Vancouver, University Golf Club.  I had hoped to get one set-up for Monday, but by all accounts Tuesday is the better day so I rolled with it!  I designed some signs and delivered them to the course and will be there from 10am until noon tomorrow promoting myself, WITW, and adidas Golf product.  To help promote the event I reached out to various prominent Vancouver based twitter accounts along with the University Golf Club’s own and asked for some help.  At the time of this writing some, including University Golf Club, have obliged and asked their followers to attend.  At this point I’m very much unsure of how things will go tomorrow, but I’ve prepped as best I can so I hope all goes well!

I next went out on the town in an attempt to get people interested in WITW by offering up challenges to them in much the same manner they’ve been offered to Steve and I throughout.  Anyone who beat me at a given challenge would be entered into a drawing to win an adidas gift certificate.  The challanges were all very simple, as in staring contest, rock/paper/scissors…  The catch was that the winners would only be announced on my facebook account, meaning that contestants would have to tune in to see if they won.  The reason behind the strategy was to better integrate social media into our activities.  It’s been very easy to focus too much on simply promoting ourselves to local people, while forgetting about what this job is really all about: social media.  I had mixed results with the overall strategy.  First the bad.  It was a rainy Monday in Vancouver today, so my main difficulty was finding people who were free and able to participate.  Now the good.  those that did participate were great, and the winner had actually already messaged me before I even announced him as a winner!  Robin (from Germany) was the winner so I’ll be sending out his gift card tomorrow morning!  The challenge he beat me at was urban putting on the sidewalk.  We both managed to hit a trash can on our first shots from about 30 feet away, but he took me down in round two when I knocked it into the street!

After my little contest I decided to shoot one last ad before returning to Oregon.  I recruited a local Vancouverite (is that how you say it?…or is it Vancouveren?) and former UO Golf teammate of mine to help me out.  The goal was to shoot a fun ad about playing golf near some of the sights of Vancouver.  The underlying brand message is simply that no matter what the conditions, adidas Golf apparel and footwear will have you covered.  We had a fun time shooting the ad as well as talking to some of the folks who were curious why on earth I was hitting 3-woods in downtown Vancouver (note: whiffle balls are key).

Tomorrow wraps things up in Canada and by evening I’ll be in very familiar territory in Oregon.  I’ll talk to you all again tomorrow!

–
chris dukeminier
www.facebook.com/cdukeWITW
www.twitter.com/chrisWITW