Love Island: The Jack of all Trends
As 9PM approached last night, on Monday 6th June, many of us sat glued to our Twitter feeds as we eagerly awaited the potential #DoubleDrama of a Boris resignation and the first ever Love Island public-voted-coupling…
Credit: https://twitter.com/politicsjoe_uk/status/1533774229413548032?s=21&t=V1Lump7NgRO5DN9Py0v-Rw
Perhaps the pessimists would say that the fact that the potential resignation of a PM, barely 24 hours after the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, was fighting with a reality TV dating show for the nation’s attention is a stark sign of the times.
A sign of the times it might be, but it’s not necessarily a bad thing - we don’t think so anyway! The great thing about marketing is that the consumer comes first; so if the attention of millions of Brits are drawn toward one singular event, brands and their creative efforts won’t be far behind.
For that very reason, in the age of social media, trend-hopping might be one of the most effective, yet underrated, marketing tools available to us. To read about how we recently delivered amazing results for a client using some clever trend-jacking, click here.
You see, marketing at its core is all about finding the attention space and finding room to slip your product, service or idea in. In the early years, marketers favoured billboards in highly-congested urban areas in the hope that drivers and their passengers would glance up and have their thoughts interrupted for just a second to digest the message, product or call to action on the billboard. In the golden age of TV, that interruption evolved into a more sophisticated and efficient one; the TV programs with the highest viewership (i.e. the biggest attention spaces) were abruptly interrupted with advertising.
The bigger the attention space, the more eyeballs at stake. The more eyeballs at stake, the bigger the opportunity for marketers. Though TV advertising has largely been surpassed by social media and other methods of digital marketing, it’s far from dead. Have a read of our blog on the Superbowl to see how big TV marketing is still alive and well.
So, whatever the method or instrument, advertising is about what it says on the tin; averting the attention of the consumer, at a time when their attention is as clustered as possible. Don’t believe us? Check out the etymology of the word below;
Last year, Sprout Social’s audience listening tool set itself the tough task of trying to measure just how much of a attention space #LoveIsland creates on social media. They found that over its 7th season, the show saw a whopping 2.49 million mentions, 96.83 million engagements, and potentially over 10B content impressions. Even they admit that this is probably an underestimate. You’d be hard-pressed to find another scheduled event that generates these kind of astounding numbers over an eight-week window, year after year.
Credit: https://sproutsocial.com/insights/love-island-trends-using-pop-culture-in-social-strategy/
With those kind of statistics in mind, it’s no surprise that a quick scroll through the #LoveIsland hashtag feed last night fielded a tonne of reactive memes and tweets from brands like Boots, Specsavers, Aldi and more. But what’s interesting about this style of marketing is that, unlike billboards or TV ads, it’s tough to interrupt scrollers’ attention directly (in fact, it could be damn near detrimental to try!).
In the age of social, it’s not so much about interrupting the moment for the consumer, but about adding to it. By joining in on the memes, the moment and the memories, brands maximise the opportunity at hand; building up brand awareness rather than breaking down their products. The best brands understand that social media isn’t about hard selling, it’s about slowly converting the consumer towards your brand by being relatable, interesting and interested.
