MAGnet #54 09/06/2022

Magnet #54

Written by Lydia Bell, Content Writer

Welcome to the 54th edition of Magnet.

Enjoy.

Love Island is back:

Love Island returned on Monday for its 8th series, with an average of 2.4m live viewers and peaking at 3m.

But today we’re interested in this year’s sponsors:

Among Love Island's more traditional sponsors like Boots and O2 Virgin Media, this year ITV made headlines by making deals with eBay and the online forum Reddit.

This year ITV turned heads by ditching its typical fast fashion sponsors and opting to tie with the second-hand retailer eBay. This sponsor comes as consumer concerns about sustainability rise, and ITV has listened. Since the show  began in 2015,  the villa has been stocked with new clothes from online retailers but this year the cast is be wearing pre-owned garments.

A first of its kind partnership in the UK, Reddit is to be the official fan partner for Love Island’s eighth series. Love Island super fans have always used Reddit to discuss the show, and new this year, ITV will offer unprecedented access to behind-the-scenes operations of the show, including exclusive content and a place for fans to have their own ‘firepit’ moments throughout the show – and it will all take place on Reddit.

“Over the last year, the appetite for Love Island has  grown on Reddit with over 140% increase in engagement and over 52% growth in subscribers in the r/LoveIslandTV community and we’re excited to celebrate the friendships, connections and fun-filled moments with the community on the content that matters most to them”, Laurelle Potter, Reddit’s UK Market Director, said.

Boots returned to sponsor a second series after having an significant  61% sales uplift during its series seven sponsorship deal..

ITV also introduced its first home & garden sponsor, having tied with the garden screen company Screen With Envy who has kitted out the garden and pool area of the villa. As a relatively new brand (launched in 2017), Screen with Envy will capitalize on its Love Island exposure by launching its debut TV ad and ramping up its social strategy.

Elsewhere, O2 Virgin Media inked a deal with Love Island as part of its wider long-term ‘Roam Freely’ campaign. The telecoms firm has leveraged its existing ‘Roam Freely’ marketing from VCCP London to feed into its Love Island sponsorship, placing campaign mascot Bubl into the villa.

Campaigns: Lego

The Lego Group is marking Pride Month with an invitation to LGBTQ+ families to express themselves through a new vocabulary of play.

‘The A to Z of Awesome’ sees the toymaker asking the community to create a Pride-themed alphabet out of the famous plastic bricks.

Running through to 2023, the campaign seeks to build a new lexicon from the abbreviations and pronoun suffixes, with the goal of sparking conversations around identity.

The initiative was born out of research from GLAAD, which found that 45% of non-LGBTQIA+ people found conversations around gender identity to be confusing. The same report also found that 59% of LGBTQ youth have experienced discrimination based on sexual orientation and/or gender identity – up from 46% in 2020. The full Lego Pride alphabet will be unveiled by the end of the year and follows moves by the toymaker to encourage children to ‘brick the rules.

Campaigns: Aldi

Last year Aldi’s Cuthbert the Caterpillar found himself in a high court trademark case and removed from the shelves, but now he is back – and to make noise about Cuthbert’s return , they celebrated by parking billboards outside M&S stores.

When Aldi launched its Colin the Caterpillar lookalike cake in April last year, M&S took the German supermarket to court against three intellectual property claims.

The spat spilled out onto social media where the supermarkets trolled each other, gaining widespread press attention, and the hashtag #FreeCuthbert trended.

While the case rumbled on Aldi wasn’t able to sell Cuthbert cakes, but after the case was ”confidentially” settled in court Aldi was allowed to bring him back.

At the time Aldi said: ”Cuthbert is free and looking forward to seeing all his fans again very soon!”

Aldi knows one thing- it’s how to make the consumer laugh.