Pre-Loved Island

We launched a new campaign to stop fast fashion in its tracks.

Sector: RetailBrand:eBay

Challenge

Clothes are cheap; worn once, and then binned. eBay has been selling pre-loved clothes since 1995 and yet they were lacking mass appeal. eBay needed to re-write the narrative surrounding pre-loved clothing. To ignite a second-hand revolution, we had to show Gen Z and Millennials that used clothes could be on-trend and desirable.

Idea

To understand what was fuelling the fast fashion economy, we looked to one of the UK’s biggest and most talked-about fashion properties. A TV show that makes and breaks fashion trends amongst the exact Gen Z and Millennial audience eBay wanted to target. ITV’s Love Island.

Now in its eighth series, the show had previously been sponsored by fast fashion brands for the first seven. The items islanders were wearing were selling out in minutes.

We harnessed the power of Love Island and re-wrote the narrative. Using product placement throughout the show, islanders were dressed in stylish pre-loved looks, with viewers able to bid on shoppable edits of looks like those seen on screen.

Co-branded TV and video ads and Twitter content celebrated the looks and embedded pre-loved fashion into the conversation of the moment.

Results

The response was incredible, with over 1700 pieces of positive press coverage, and a staggering 7000% increase in searches for ‘pre-loved fashion’ on eBay.