Love Island to give big boost to fashion brands

By

Barbara Santamaria

Published
May 30, 2019

Monday’s Love Island premiere is set to mark the beginning of a potentially lucrative summer for fashion brands, with viewers expected to shop for seen-on-TV products and looks both in real-time and throughout the series.

“Popular TV programmes such as Love Island can wield huge influence over shopping habits,” said Mike Klinkhammer, director of advertising sales EU at eBay, which released a series of insights revealing the extent of the show’s popularity.

Last year, searches for “yellow playsuit” on Ebay.co.uk shot up by 276% after TV host Caroline Flack sported a bright number in the opening series. Online shoppers also took to the ecommerce platform to find pink denim jackets and shorts in the hour after Love Island star Dani Dyer wore a pink double denim combo on 23 July.

Ebay’s Clothing, Shoes and Accessories category experienced a big surge of interest in line with the show last year, while there was also a significant number of beauty searches. The marketplace said searches for “fake tan” surged by 91% during 2018’s premiere compared to the hour before.

“These insights reveal the scale and scope of opportunities for brands – and not only those in the fashion, beauty and fitness categories – to pinpoint audiences likely to be interested in their products and target them with the right messages when they’re most inspired. Armed with rich insights into consumer behaviour and contextual data to find audiences in the shopping mindset, brands have the potential to achieve impressive results and boost their bottom line,” said Mike Klinkhammer.

Pauline Robson, managing partner at MediaCom, added: “Brands have a really exciting opportunity to engage with avid viewers who are inspired by the Love Island stars, setting and lifestyle, and it’s not just on-screen sponsors that can get a slice of the prize. Brands can engage with the same audiences online at a fraction of the cost.
 
“If marketers are savvy and have their finger on the pulse of the Love Island nation, they can capitalise on the second-screening phenomenon and deliver relevant advertising to viewers online in real-time as the drama unfolds. But, to really make it work, brands need to understand how their audiences behave and to work with partners that have relevant content, context, and targeting opportunities.”

One brand that is definitely going to benefit from Love Island’s popularity is I Saw It First, after announcing it will be the show’s exclusive fashion partner.