EssenceMediacom: eBay's Pre-Loved Island

Three women and a man sitting on a sofa

EssenceMediacom: eBay's Pre-Loved Island

A new campaign to make second-hand clothes desirable

Many clothes are cheap; often worn only a few times, then binned. eBay, which has been selling pre-loved clothes since 1995, offers the perfect antidote to clothing waste. How could EssenceMediacom ignite a second-hand revolution, showing that used clothes could be on-trend and desirable?

ITV’s Love Island. One of the UK’s biggest and most talked-about fashion influencers, this show makes and breaks fashion trends amongst the Gen Z and Millennial audience eBay wanted to target. The items islanders were wearing were selling out in minutes.

Group of Love Island contestants posing in a garden with fairy lights in the trees
Group of Love Island contestants posing in a garden with fairy lights in the trees
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Using product placement throughout the show, islanders were dressed in stylish pre-loved clothes, with viewers able to bid on shoppable edits of the looks seen on screen.

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

The result was over 1,700 pieces of positive press coverage, and a significant increase in searches for ‘pre-loved fashion’ on eBay.

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