After a long, hot summer of Love Island advertising hype, new research now reveals that followers are increasingly viewing ITV’s TV phenomenon as a scripted, soap-like drama – which may make it a safer environment for brands.
Social listening research conducted by media agency Carat, utilising tools from Relative Insight, reveals that, between the 2017 and 2018 series, followers have stopped thinking of Love Island as a reality TV show and begun to think of it as a soap opera.
In comparison to 2017, this year words used to describe scripted content – such as ‘drama’, ‘play’, ‘scripted’, ‘scenes’ and ‘staged’- were used twice as much by viewers across popular forums including Digital Spy and The Student Rooms.
Viewers are also demonstrating a heightened awareness of the role producers have in engineering the show’s story lines. The word “producers” was used three times more in 2018, with viewers blaming Love Island’s production team for winning Islander Dani Dyer’s emotional distress mid-way through the series.
According to Carat, viewers cared significantly less about the show’s final outcome this year, with words relating to the cash prize (‘money’, ’50k’ and ‘cash’) used three times less. Instead, Love Island devotees were far more invested in the progression of character story lines throughout the series.
Carat’s head of insight and analytics, Alison Drummond, said a combination of money constraints and societal pressure has led Millennials to rely on connections with emotional narratives and story archs, which could be good news for brands.
“If Love Island is becoming more Soap-like, it provides a safer, more predictable and less volatile environment for brands to operate in,” she said.
“If the show is becoming increasingly scripted, staged and followed consistently by its viewers, it will allow brands to reach this audience on a regular, more controlled basis in conjunction with a show with a reputable name.”
Viewing figures peaked at just over 4 million for the Love Island final last Monday. Of those viewers, 1.7 million were aged 16-34, a 27% share of total broadcast viewing for that demographic.
