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 our pre-loved fashion was as stylish as our fast fashion competitors. Our brief was to come up with a creative idea and 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.

To change people’s shopping habits and perceptions of eBay, we coupled up with Love Island to become their first ever pre-loved fashion partner. Turning the Love Island contestants into living, walking, talking, kissing billboards for eBay’s pre-loved fashion.

We hand-picked celebrity stylist and ex Cosmopolitan Fashion Director Amy Bannerman to assemble the pre-loved wardrobe for the Islanders. These exact outfits were then made available to buy via eBay, so fans could hunt the looks down for themselves. In addition, a rotation of different “Shop the Islander” edits were made available on eBay throughout the season, so fans could tap into the individual style of the islanders.

PR’s fuelled the hype with parties, real-life events, auctions, flaunting the hot Islander looks curated by eBay. With Tasha Ghouri hosting a series of live panel shows and being called out by the media as the show’s most fashionable Islander to date.

When it came to pre-loved fashion, eBay was the unpopular option as the market was dominated by the cool kids; Vinted, Depop, Vestiaire. All of these brands were overtly communicating a message of sustainability targeted to the eco-conscious young fashion lovers. However, we knew even though Gen Z and Millennials want to be more fashion conscious, they are the more likely to resort to fast fashion due to it being trendier and more easily accessible. Therefore, we thought that we had to go straight at the heartland of fast-fashion and show young people that they could - quite literally - look like Love Island stars if they shop pre-loved fashion on eBay. Which was a major win for eBay and second-hand fashion because we got more coverage, earned share of voice and reactions than any of the second-hand platforms ever managed to achieve.

We kitted the Love Island contestants out in an endless flow of fresh fits and hidden gems specially sourced from eBay, which had people’s heads turning every night. These exact outfits were then made available to buy via eBay, so fans could hunt the looks down for themselves. In addition, a rotation of different “Shop the islander” edits were made available on eBay throughout the season, so fans could tap into the individual style of the islanders.

As well as Love Island Season 8, we involved the Islanders in multiple channels to spark excitement with our audiences. From unboxing eBay preloved on social to giving out personalised discounts on our direct auction activity on ITV hub, the Islanders maximised hype and converted sales on the platform.

It ran from 6th June 2022 to 1st August 2022 and has already kicked off again for another season.

The campaign had 1707 pieces of PR coverage from big national publishers, including Guardian, BBC News, and fashion specialists Vogue, Marie Claire.

We dominated the news agenda, with coverage in all UK national newspapers on the day of launch. Igniting a conversation which put into question the future of fast fashion and heralded a new era to normalise pre-loved, with eBay at its heart.

We saw a +1600% uplift in searches for “pre-loved fashion” on eBay through our campaign activity (May-July). 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, and media mentions of eBay fashion up by 74%. 53% of Love Island viewers admitted that they would consider buying pre-loved over new items since watching the show and 23% making their first pre-loved purchase this summer.