Billabong International Limited, a clothing company known for surfwear, has seen significant social media activity from May to November 2012, with 180,167 mentions, primarily on Twitter. Key demographics indicate a favorable sentiment towards the brand, especially among younger women, but the company struggles with utilizing its large social following effectively. The analysis suggests a need for Billabong to simplify its social media strategy and encourage more pro-active engagement among employees to enhance its brand presence online.

1. May 29 – Nov. 27 2012
Billabong International Limited
Social Media Assessment
Presentation prepared by : Daniel Marshall
danielm@igo2group.com.au (+639398360117)

2. Social Media Assessment
Customers-
Brands-
Competitors-
Partners-

3. Agenda
Social Media Activity over the last 6
months
Mentions in blogs-Who,What,Where?
Strengths and Weaknesses
Demographs
Wordcloud and Buzz
Summarize

4. Social Media Activity
Scott Risto & Harris Enich are Billabong International Ltd’s Marketing Directors.
I used these queries when researching Billabong International Ltd’s social media standing:-"Billabong
International Limited" OR "Billabong" OR "Gordon and Rena Merchant" OR "surfwear" OR "Billabong Pro" OR
"Billabong Girls“ – My search was from 29th May 2012 – 27th Nov 2012,from this we can see that there was
180,167 overall mentions and the majority (70%/126,854) of these were on Twitter.

5. Blogs Activity
The Image above shows the blog activity about Billabong International Ltd and what is interesting to see is that
even though the company was initially founded in Australia its growth worldwide puts Australia third at 14.4%
blog mention whereas USA have 30.4% and more women are talking about them than men with 62%-38%,all
under the age of 35.
With a 93% favorable sentiment people are liking Billabong!

6. Social Strengths
Billabong has a good sized social property
and already has a big following to base
increasement move with.
A Brand/Name well known and
established.
Lots of interact able content within their
social platforms.

7. Social Weaknesses
Billabong has a big social
following but isn’t utilizing that
following in all the social
channels.
Has a very complex and not user
friendly online structure.
Has poor collaboration on
social media within the
corporation.

8. Twitter Activity
Here you can see from the graph above that again USA dominate the activity with 24.7% tweets.
126,854 which equates to 693 tweets per day or 29 tweets per hour mainly posted by men at 60%-40% by women.
We also see a spike in August which could be attributed to 2 factors,1. the Billabong International Ltd Full Year Results
Presentation, Billabong International Limited FY12 Media Release and Billabong International Ltd Transformation
Strategy(On 27 August 2012, Chief Executive Laura Inman presented her four-year plan to try to return Billabong to
positive sales growth and increase earnings. The plan included a range of measures with the key focus being on
simplifying the business, leveraging its namesake brand, improving its supply chain and e-commerce offerings. The new
initiatives are estimated to cost approximately $80 million. In September 2012 two private equity firms, TPG Capital and
Bain Capital, are bidding for ownership of Billabong. and 2. Billabong Pro Tahiti 2012 which happened around the 20th
August 2012.

9. Demographic Activity
Social Media and Blog
The Graph above shows Industry Demographics and as you can see by the biggest slice (fashion 23.8%) that Billabong’s
main industry is in wholesaling and retailing of surf, skate, snow and sports apparel, accessories. But since the growth
and expansion of the company a wide scope of industry comes into play which accounts for the multiple segments in this
graph.

10. BuzzGraph and WordCloud
Activity
The BuzzGraph shows 2 bold lines, the thicker the line is the more strong to it’s relation to the search topic, so I see that surfing
and surfers share a strong connection to Billabong. If you go to the Billabong website ( www.Billabong.com) you will just how big
the Billabong brand influence is in the surfing world.
The WordCloud we can see that billabong is in the middle and has the biggest size, so billabong is the strongest relation to the
topic and we know that’s their brand name.

11. Names and Titles in
Company
Enrich Harris
Billabong International Ltd’s Marketing Director
&
Risto Scott
Enrich Harris practices international Billabong International Ltd’s Marketing Director
diplomacy with Canadian Risto Scott. (Canada)

12. Analysis of the MAP
Analysis : As the MAP Images Analysis we can say that just in 6 months Billabong
got more mentions on twitter than on all the other social media’s combined. In my
research I found out that the Billabong brand has gone from humble beginnings to
becoming a corporation that just keeps growing.
Method: I used these queries when researching Billabong International Ltd’s social
media standing:-"Billabong International Limited" OR "Billabong" OR "Gordon and
Rena Merchant" OR "surfwear" OR "Billabong Pro" OR "Billabong Girls”. Also
researched their standing and position in todays global markets.

13. Summary
Billabong International is a clothing company that traded on the Australian Securities
Exchange since 11 August 2000. As of February 2012 Billabong has 677 company-
owned stores worldwide.
Looking from the outside in, it appears that Billabong’s Marketing suffers because of
the increasing size of the company. To rectify this their executives need to see the
importance of having social media intergrated to their business strategy and also
having employees being more pro-active within the companies social property.
Simplify,Simplify,Simplify….having a more co-ordinated company policy on Social
Activity would be of great advantage to Billabong. And have that policy extend to all
the Billabong brand.