Social Media Summer Takeover – Love Island

This summer, the UK has had an explosion of the World Cup, (Team Cariad are still in mourning for England) the never-ending heatwave and the buzz of The Royal Wedding. But what has been the hottest topic of conversation so far? Love Island. The premiere of series 4, which saw the contestants ‘couple up’, was viewed by over 3.4 million people, and many of these viewers range in age from the teenagers to grandparents! At Cariad, its had us stuck to our screens and taking notice of the power of its sponsors and partners: Superdrug, Rimmel UK and Jet2Holidays. All three companies have had a slice of the Love Island pie and are advertising effectively on their social media platforms. But what are they doing and how? Read on to find out more about how to recognise an effective summer campaign.

The brands know who their target audience is and where to find them – their mobile phones. This makes Instagram and Twitter their best friends when it comes to posting.

Superdrug are the official sponsors for Love Island in 2018 for the third year running and their reign of supplying the sun cream in the villa is as strong as ever. Superdrug feature their television ads on every commercial break and feature digital products such as their newly launched mobile network. Their Instagram has 650K followers, and features a ‘saved story’ tailormade to feature only Love Island posts, dating back to when the show first aired in June. Rimmel UK, who provide the villa with make-up, are on the same wavelength with their socials. Both their Twitter and Instagram are brimming with Love Island content and keywords, which lead back to their own products, posting content of their make-up being used by the Islanders.

“Superdrug’s sponsorship of ITV show, Love Island, paid off as demand for bronzer, make-up and hair products boosted sales and profits. The high street health and beauty retailer grew annual pre-tax profit by 16 per cent to £92.9 million on 2.3 per cent higher revenue of £1.24 billion.”

Rimmel UK also launched a range of temporary tattoos which the contestants wore, advertising the product and giving the brand exclusivity in posting never before seen photos and YouTube videos. Their Twitter features a prominent pinned tweet about the show and the partnership products, and keeps the flow of conversation going with relevant tweets and engaging polls. This year, Jet2Holidays have come on board as official travel partner. Their campaign is a commercial competition aimed at millennials to win a trip to Majorca and tickets to the live final. This is supported by tweets featuring the exotic destination and using Instagram stories to their advantage by filming previous Islanders enjoying their Majorca locations. Through posting with relevant hashtags, tagging the official Love Island socials and keeping their bios plugged with related keywords, each brand is keeping their followers engaged with this season’s biggest TV reality show and creating traffic for their businesses.

These three companies each have a huge following and online presence, but how can smaller businesses take inspiration from their summer campaigns with little or no cost?

Run a competition

This doesn’t need to be on the grand scale of offering an all expenses paid holiday! At the end of the day, everyone loves getting something for free. Think about what your business could offer to a consumer that would hopefully gain you more business back in the end, and in the meantime gain traffic to your website via the competition link.

Join in on the conversation

If you see something is being talked about by a lot of people on social media, join in! This is an effective way to bring the focus back to your business and getting your name involved. On Twitter, if you are tweeting and adding in keywords or hashtags about a trending topic, you are automatically featured on an active ‘trend’ list. Just make sure what you say is relevant and intriguing to gain engagement!

Make your business trendy

If you can creatively think of how to advertise your business in relation to a hot topic, this will show that your business is adaptable. For example, with the recent mania of the World Cup, Cariad Marketing were posting football related content, such as Instagram stories in preparation for the game that evening, visuals of the office sweepstake and using the #WorldCup2018 hashtag. This shows that as a business, we were keeping up with the trend, tactically using the right and relevant keywords and engaging with other businesses that were talking about it.

What do you think makes a great summer social media campaign, and would you consider trying our tips for your business? Let us know via Twitter @CariadMarketing or leave a comment below.