Making the show synonymous with summer to bring record viewing
Fans of the show see Love Island as the start of the summer. For non-viewers, parks and pub gardens are what marks the season. To increase audiences we needed to stick it on these muggy muppets who hardly watch TV at all – 16-34 non-viewers. We needed to make Love Island part of their summer fun.
Rather than compete with summer, we coupled up with it by taking the show on the road to become part of the season. A branded ice-cream van served up flirty flavours around the country. We heated up commutes by sending hunks in trunks to hand out beach goodies with the Metro. Social media was filled with Love Island content including Snapchat Fit Filters to re-create the sun kissed look of contestants.
We kickstarted Love Island Fever, delivering a 90% uplift in episode one viewing, making ITV2 the most watched channel for 16-34s that day for the first time ever. Thanks to this growth, ITV2 overtook E4 to become the biggest youth TV channel in the UK. The show became the 2nd most tweeted about event of the year. 2017 was officially the Sumer of Love Island.