Linking real-world behaviour to reality TV
This week’s egtabite takes a deeper dive into an ambitious study presented by ITV at egta’s Market Intelligence Meeting in Budapest end of January. The UK sales house showcased innovative research on Love Island – the smash hit reality show which took the UK by storm – with a focus on measuring the impact of the multiple brand partners’ activities around the show.
As a core component of ITV’s commercial strategy, the sales house wants to help advertisers understand the impact of their media investments, while at the same time setting benchmarks for ground-breaking advertising effectiveness research.
The celebrity lifestyle
Proving a massive success with ITV2’s young audiences, Love Island sees its occupants live the celebrity lifestyle in a stunning villa on the beautiful island of Mallorca, while they get to know each other a little better. Full of flirting, jealousy, rejection and romance, Love Island is an emotional feast of lust and passion in the sun.
The success of this show is a clear reminder to the industry that young people do watch commercial television – and lots of it.
Love Island can take credit for the biggest audience ever on ITV2 – an episode on 8 July consolidated to 4.5m viewers on TV alone. The show also had the biggest audience on a digital channel since 2010 for 16-34s & 16-24s. Love Island had 2.3m 16-34 viewers and 0.9m 16-24 viewers (via TV set: live, PVR and VOD), which are the biggest audiences on TV in 2018 for these demographics outside of the England World Cup matches and I’m A Celebrity.¹
A research on brand effectiveness for the show
In 2018, ITV partnered with On Device Research to conduct their most ambitious study to date to measure the impact of Love Island’s partnerships with brands such as Superdrug, Missguided, Samsung, Kellog’s, Rimmel and more.
The study was able to measure cross-media ad impact across a range of channels: ITV2, ITV Hub, the Love Island app and digital display.
The methodology for the partnership with Superdrug included the recruitment of 3,000 (18-34s) respondents and the use of Audio Content Recognition technology to passively measure TV ad exposure, with tracking for digital ads to provide a full picture of passive ad exposure.
It also included the creation of control and exposed groups to measure the impact of the campaign on brand metrics and the use of geo-location data via Location Sciences to measure Superdrug and supermarket in-store traffic.
Results
The research yielded great results with regards to brand awareness, brand consideration, online visits and traffic to stores:
86 % of Love Island viewers were aware of the brand partners, agreeing that sponsorships boost brand awareness as part of a wider campaign. Missguided, the women’s clothing brand, benefitted the most from the partnership in terms of driving brand awareness with a 16% uplift. ²
Brand partners saw an average of 9% increase in brand consideration².
Superdrug experienced a fivefold increase in website visits among Love Island viewers ², and a 14% increase in in-store traffic among viewers during the campaign. The partnership led to 300K incremental visits to Superdrug. Assuming that the average spend per visit was £10 this equates to £3m incremental revenue³.
Moreover, the results of the study have been very well received, offering the commercial teams a cornerstone of insights to engage with clients.
“This ground-breaking study shows how partnering with ITV’s fantastic content not only drives brand fame, but also changes actual behaviours amongst viewers. The results will be instrumental in helping ITV increase revenue for Love Island in 2019”, says Claire Heys, Director of Brand Partnerships & Content at ITV
————————————————————————————————
1.Source: BARB/AdvantEdge, – Individuals
2.Source: On Device Research/Love Island Partnership Effectiveness Research: Linking real-world behaviours to reality TV
3.Source: On Device Research/Love Island Partnership Effectiveness Research: Linking real-world behaviours to reality TV Source: Love Island Study On Device Research, *based on average expenditure toiletries/cosmetics on GB TGI
OTHER CASE STUDIES
A BIG-SCREEN STUDY FINDS STRONGER ATTENTION ON TV4 PLAY THAN ON YOUTUBE
24. 4. 2026TV4 just launched its third attention study, comparing the viewing experience on its streaming service (TV4 Play) with YouTube’s big screen experience at home. It confirms once again the assumption that the streaming environment provided by a qualitative TV network (BVOD) delivers a much bigger attention than UGC platforms, such as YouTube. An at-home test… Continue reading EGTABITE 248: ITV’S LOVE ISLAND: LINKING REAL-WORLD BEHAVIOUR TO REALITY TV
THE TV ADVERTISING PARADOX, A THINKTV NEW ZEALAND CASE STUDY (1/2)
24. 4. 2026In late 2024, ThinkTV New Zealand, under the leadership of Jacqueline Freeman, GM Communications, undertook a full market review to understand how television was being perceived, valued, and used across the New Zealand marketing ecosystem. This was a broad diagnostic rather than a simple pulse check. It drew on perspectives from CMOs, CFOs, insights people,… Continue reading EGTABITE 248: ITV’S LOVE ISLAND: LINKING REAL-WORLD BEHAVIOUR TO REALITY TV
AD EMISSIONS MEASUREMENT: LESSONS FROM THE FINNISH MARKET
31. 3. 2026Finland’s commercial TV broadcasters spent the past year developing a carbon emissions measurement framework for linear TV advertising, starting with no local methodology and ending with a validated model owned by an industry body. For markets facing the same challenge, the experience offers a useful reference point. Start narrow, then scale The project focused exclusively… Continue reading EGTABITE 248: ITV’S LOVE ISLAND: LINKING REAL-WORLD BEHAVIOUR TO REALITY TV
A NEW WAY FOR FRANCETV PUBLICITÉ TO SELL CONTEXTUAL VIDEO ADVERTISING
27. 3. 2026FranceTV Publicité (FTP), the advertising sales house for French public television, has introduced Context.IA into its digital video offer. The solution uses programme context to decide when an ad should appear, instead of relying only on fixed scheduling. That makes Context.IA a new commercial tool inside FranceTV Publicité’s own video inventory. Context.IA links programme cues… Continue reading EGTABITE 248: ITV’S LOVE ISLAND: LINKING REAL-WORLD BEHAVIOUR TO REALITY TV
BUILDING A SHOPPABLE, ATTENTION-READY CTV OFFER: THE BIG BROTHER CONTEXTUAL CASE
26. 3. 2026In 2025, Paramount Australia, in partnership with FreeWheel and egta, hosted a webinar outlining a forward-looking view of the evolving advertising market. One key topic explored the industry’s shift to pull-based discovery, experience-driven engagement, and frictionless content-commerce integration. Paramount Australia’s Contextual Advertising Suite directly responds to these trends, reinforcing the company’s leadership in premium CTV… Continue reading EGTABITE 248: ITV’S LOVE ISLAND: LINKING REAL-WORLD BEHAVIOUR TO REALITY TV
GLOBO CREATES HOME SCREEN PROMINENCE FOR FREE-TO-AIR TV ON SMART TVS
26. 2. 2026Globo, Brazil’s largest commercial TV group, is rolling out DTV+, a next-generation free-to-air TV standard designed for connected TVs. It brings broadcast channels into the TV operating system, with app-like navigation, login and interactive layers placed directly on top of live programming. The move fits Brazil’s viewing reality. Linear TV accounts for 57.9% of total… Continue reading EGTABITE 248: ITV’S LOVE ISLAND: LINKING REAL-WORLD BEHAVIOUR TO REALITY TV
THE VISUAL TRANSFER EFFECT: HOW SOUND BUILDS BRANDS
24. 2. 2026In collaboration with neuro-marketing agency Unravel, Talpa Media has produced the scientific proof that audio does not just complement TV. It actively reactivates it, reconstructing visual brand memories in the consumer’s mind through sound. The findings carry significant implications for how audio is planned, sold, and valued within the wider media mix. Context Talpa Media… Continue reading EGTABITE 248: ITV’S LOVE ISLAND: LINKING REAL-WORLD BEHAVIOUR TO REALITY TV
RMB TURNS QR CODE VOTING INTO A SHARED VIEWING MOMENT THAT STRENGTHS BRAND IMAGE FOR SPRITE AND DELI CHOC
24. 2. 2026Campaign objectives The chocolate snack Deli Choc and soft drink Sprite brands worked with RMB to reach younger audiences by becoming part of Belgian hip-hop show “PLAYGROUND”, supporting new rap talent through a live QR vote and cross-platform content. This helps the brands appear as enablers of the format rather than separate ads. For RMB… Continue reading EGTABITE 248: ITV’S LOVE ISLAND: LINKING REAL-WORLD BEHAVIOUR TO REALITY TV
CANADIAN SUPERSTAR ANDREW PHUNG HELPS VIA RAIL CHALLENGE CAR CONVENIENCE ASSUMPTIONS WITH LONG-FORM STORYTELLING ACROSS CBC’S TV ECOSYSTEM
24. 2. 2026Campaign objectives VIA Rail, the company operating Canada’s national passenger rail service, combined a new product launch with brand building, using long-form content to tackle misconceptions that tend to block conversion in travel: comfort, ease, and whether rail feels like a realistic alternative to driving for intercity trips. The objectives behind this campaign were to… Continue reading EGTABITE 248: ITV’S LOVE ISLAND: LINKING REAL-WORLD BEHAVIOUR TO REALITY TV
HOW L’ORÉAL PARIS AND RTL MADE STREET HARASSMENT HARD TO IGNORE
24. 2. 2026Context Sexual harassment in public spaces is one of the most common forms of gender-based violence in the world. Two figures frame the issue: 80% of women have experienced street harassment, but 85% of people say they lack training on how to intervene. Ad Alliance and L’Oréal created a campaign to respond to this problem… Continue reading EGTABITE 248: ITV’S LOVE ISLAND: LINKING REAL-WORLD BEHAVIOUR TO REALITY TV
HOW AD ALLIANCE USED VIRTUAL SET GRAPHICS TO RESKIN THE LET’S DANCE STAGE FOR UNIVERSAL PICTURES
24. 2. 2026Context This campaign promotes a film by changing the look of a well-known TV studio during the ad break, so the show setting becomes part of the idea. Universal Pictures International Germany supported the live-action version (made with real actors) of How to Train Your Dragon, based on a well-known animated franchise. The ad special… Continue reading EGTABITE 248: ITV’S LOVE ISLAND: LINKING REAL-WORLD BEHAVIOUR TO REALITY TV
CHANNEL 4 SHOWS HOW PUTTING ACCESSIBILITY FIRST BENEFITS BOTH CUSTOMERS AND COMMERCIAL WITH CURRYS’
24. 2. 2026Context Channel 4’s Diversity in Advertising Award 2025 set its brief under the theme “Inclusive by Design”. It asked brands to embed inclusive practices into the creative, rather than at the end of production. The initiative linked that ambition to airtime: £1m of advertising space across Channel 4’s portfolio sat behind the winning campaign. The… Continue reading EGTABITE 248: ITV’S LOVE ISLAND: LINKING REAL-WORLD BEHAVIOUR TO REALITY TV