By 2022 Love Island had become well-established and embedded in popular culture - so that summer we had every right to claim Love as Ours. This campaign took the national, and international, obsession beyond TV and onto every media touchpoint, making it the biggest and best series to date.
The OGs of Love
Challenge
By its eighth season, Love Island was showing signs of fatigue with a slight drop in viewership and growing media scrutiny. The brand risked becoming background noise in a summer it typically owned.
Opportunity
Beneath the memes and Boohoo deals, Love Island still delivered genuine relationships and emotional investment. We saw a chance to reframe the show around the real love stories that kept audiences coming back.
Insight
Social listening revealed that while Love Island dominates the cultural conversation, ITV wasn’t seen to control it. This lack of perceived brand ownership made the show vulnerable, especially in moments of controversy.
Solution
We Own It was an unapologetic campaign positioning the show as the OGs of summer love. It unified press, content, and in-show branding under one bold idea.
Partnership with Love of Huns, daily updates on Snapchat and Islanders becoming statues of love, this was a summer to remember.
Results
2022 delivered Love Island’s biggest launch in five years and the most-watched first episode since 2017.
It marked a new way of working for ITV Group Marketing, with Marketing, Creative, Media, and Production aligned under one idea and a blueprint for future collaboration.
The best-performing Love Island promo in five seasons for appeal, affinity, and action, with all scores up by an average of 2 percentage points.