Love Island for the past 7 years has been culturally iconic in defining fashion yet have always partnered with notoriously unsustainable fast fashion brands in the process. With 61.6 % of viewers averaging between the ages of 16 and 34, this was the perfect place for eBay to reach a younger fashion-led audience and convince them that they had the trendiest pre-loved clothes on the platform. Our brief was to come up with a creative idea and a PR strategy that will not only turn the heads of young Love Island fans but also our harshest critics’; the authorities in fashion like; Vogues, stylists, influencers…

We set out to drive awareness, consideration and positive talkability around pre-loved fashion with the partnership. And maximise cultural engagement and hype around eBay’s pre-loved fashion credentials; making eBay the first port of call, for whenever they were on the hunt for pre-loved fashion.

Even though Gen Z and Millennials try to change their shopping habits for the better, they can’t resist hunting for the Islanders’ looks. So, we needed an idea to turn their heads to pre-loved instead of Boohoos and PLTs which offered a better way to couple up with hot trendy fashion.

Find the pre-loves of your life on eBay

To get this audience to consider eBay, we turned the Love Island contestants into live walking, talking, kissing billboards for eBay’s pre-loved fashion offerings.

We hand-picked celebrity stylist and ex Cosmopolitan Fashion Director, Amy Bannerman to pull together a pre-loved wardrobe for the Islanders; an endless flow of fresh fits and hidden gems sourced from eBay to turn heads every night. So, we set out to use Love Island as a shop window for inspired edits on eBay to show them that eBay is the home to the hottest pre-loved fashion.

eBay’s challenge was not only to change our target audience’s perspectives but also the harshest ever critics; Vogues, the stylists, and the fashion world itself. We knew that fashion led GenZ/Milennials wanted to shop better, but with limited options in terms of quality and range (Depop, Vinted), they often succumbed to fast fashion.

They didn’t realise what they were searching for; a broad range of hot pre-loved fashion, was just a click away. So our insight was young people didn’t realised that eBay, with pre-loved styles from vintage designer brands to trendy pieces, offered a better way to shop for fashion.

PR’s mission was to fuel the hype for eBay’s pre-loved range within the show; parties, real-life events, auctions, flaunting the hot Islander looks curated by eBay. And to engage the wider fashion world in our partnership by targeting hot topics like sustainability and deploying our own credible stylist.

As the first pre-loved fashion partner, we dressed Islanders with pre-loved head to toe during spiciest moments of the show and turned heads to eBay, as well as eco-conscious fashion.

To maximise the impact, the work needed to live in the same channels that fans engaged with the show. While we got people excited about finding their pre-loves on eBay with our TV adverts, raising awareness of the sponsorship, we leveraged digital and social channels to increase consideration for eBay and fuel engagement with pre-loved fashion and eBay.

We involved the Islanders in multiple channels to spark excitement with our audiences. From unboxing eBay preloved on TikTok and Instagram to giving out personalised discounts on our direct auction activity on ITV hub, the famous Islanders did a great job at maximising the hype around sponsorship and Love Island, as well as converting that excitement to sales on the platform.

Our campaign landed in culture like a bombshell. With 1707 PR coverages throughout the show, our earned media went from 55% to 92% and eBay saw a 500% rise in share of voice, smashing our competitors’ (Depop, Vinted)

People couldn’t get enough of this spicy re-coupling, with a +7000% uplift in fans searching for “pre-loved fashion” on eBay only half-way through the series. We’ve seen more people talking about pre-loved fashion than ever with 935% more mentions of ‘pre-loved fashion’ across all online platforms than during the same time last year.

We managed to turn our fans heads to pre-loved fashion with 47% of Love Island viewers admitting that they would consider buying pre-loved over new items since watching the show and 23% making their first ever pre-loved purchase this summer. 1.5 million heads turned to eBay’s pre-loved and a generation of fast fashion brands, kicked in the recycling bin.