This year’s Love Island premiere episode had over 5 million viewers, which is even higher than last year’s record-setting debut. It’s the conversation of most offices, schools and bars up and down the country. As well as discussions around their relationship drama, naturally, watching these well-groomed contestants day in day out leads to viewers asking themselves the question: ‘how can I get the look?’ Last year, Missguided was Love Island’s sponsor and reportedly achieved a 40% sales increase during the show’s run.
Now it is I Saw It First’s chance to benefit from this reality TV phenomenon. As Love Island is incredibly popular amongst Gen Z and Millennials, social media goes hand-in-hand with the TV show. I Saw It First was a relatively unknown clothing brand before Love Island began in comparison to fashion giant, Missguided and therefore have had to work harder to make a splash with this audience. Their strategy has integrated e-commerce across TV and social media.
As well as adverts for I Saw It First between each segment of the show, the clothing brand has given each ‘islander’ an allowance before entering the villa to purchase clothing to wear on-screen. This allows the contestants to mix and match the items with their own wardrobes, making the gifted outfits more fluid and natural as opposed to the traditional sponsored Instagram posts.
This strategy also allows the brand to create a relationship with these rising influencers before they hit stardom and gain millions of Instagram followers in a matter of weeks. When the show ends, they will have formed a connection with the I Saw It First clothing and will be more inclined to work with the brand long-term.
Due to live public opinion scrolling on Twitter and the voting mechanic, Love Island viewers are very likely to watch the show whilst holding their smartphone in the hand. There were over 400,000 tweets mentioning Love Island in the first episode alone. I Saw It First feature the Love Island hashtag in their posts to take advantage of this reach.
They have also created the hashtag #ISawIsland which users can use to search all of the outfit posts from the brand and easily find that bikini or dress they have been eyeing up on their TV screen. The brand’s social posts consist of screenshots of the contestants wearing the clothing on their social channels, these images are candid, once again reinforcing this seamless product placement.
I Saw It First has also integrated their product placement into the official Love Island app. When they wish to vote for who they want to save from being dumped from the island they are served with adverts that have direct links to the items featured. This helps to build an association of the two brands, Love Island and I Saw It First come hand-in-hand.
We have all heard the theory that consumers need to see an item around 3 times before purchasing and these methods across different platforms make the clothes appear prominent in a user’s mind.
This multi-platform, integrated approach to e-commerce is gaining momentum with reality shows, as clothing brand Quiz teamed up with the Only Way Is Essex cast and Never Fully Dressed became Made In Chelsea’s official fashion partner. These shows are influential amongst Gen Z and Millennials, two of the biggest generations in history, who are fashion conscious and very active on social media. The partnerships tap into an audience that multi-task on their phones whilst enjoying these shows.
It also makes purchasing seamless, as the links on social media and in the apps are direct to the products. It is certainly a trend that will continue to grow as reality TV continues to dominate our TV screens and feeds.
Here at PHA, we have set up an array of influencer partnerships for our clients, ensuring that their brand values crossover with that of the influencer, eradicating any doubts of authenticity or trust. Feel free to contact us to discuss how you can start taking advantage of influencers today.
