Press release:
Billabong was named both Men’s and Women’s Brand of the Year as it dominated the Australian Surf Industry Awards held on the Gold Coast.
Hosted by the SBIA (Surf & Boardsports Industry Association), the awards celebrated the industry’s best product, brands and retailers for 2013/2014.
Along with taking out the coveted brand awards Billabong also took home the Product Innovation of the Year for the ground-breaking new V1 wetsuit, The Billabong Life’s Better in Boardshorts campaign won the Men’s Marketing Campaign of the year for the third year running and the Cleo + Billabong collaboration won the Women’s Marketing Campaign of the year. Billabong won a sixth award on the night for its Recycler Series which has seen over 58 million plastic bottles turned into Boardshorts, while the wider Billabong group was also recognised for its success by claiming the retail chain award with Surf Dive n Ski taking home the top prize. Sales reps Peter Dick (South-East Queensland) and Chris Slattery (West Australia) also claimed major gongs.
Global Billabong Brand President Shannan North said it was particularly pleasing the awards recognised the breath of talent within the Australian team from innovation in design and marketing through to excellence in sales and retail.
“There’s no better or more welcome recognition than that of your industry peers and this win is a reflection of the outstanding effort of all our team,” said Shannan.
He said the awards also underlined Billabong’s on-going connection to the core surfing community it serves.
“The award-winning V1 wetsuit has an instant inflatable air bladder to quickly get you to the surface, an idea the team developed after Shane Dorian’s near drowning incident at Mavericks in 2010” said Shannan. “The Recycler series takes on what is a huge environmental problem that too many of us see in the surf these days in discarded plastic bottles. As it has since day one, Billabong will continue to listen, innovate and deliver,” said Shannan.
