Five Business Lessons You Can Learn From Love Island. Yes, Seriously!

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Find out how popular TV show Love Island can help put your business into perspective

Love Island

NO, we haven’t gone mad. We are all still relatively sane. Please, stay with us, there’s method in this madness.

You could be forgiven for double-checking the header of this page to find out if you are still on the Holyrood website – rest assured, you are.

Once you’ve rediscovered your bearings let’s remember that we are here to discuss the television phenomenon that is Love Island.

Essentially, Love Island is a modern-day Tinder-in-real-life approach to dating. Hosted by British television and radio presenter Caroline Flack, singletons make their way to a luxury paradise in the hope of finding love (and a tan).

The aim of the game is to stay coupled up and survive a combination of public voting and being left single and without a partner.

Love Island will be on our televisions for a minimum of 8 weeks, as more boys and girls enter and exit the villa.

Contestants need to win the hearts of each other and the public to make their way to the final where a whopping £50,000 is up for grabs. Who said love and money don’t go together?


Whether it’s a harmless passing fancy or the start of something special, there’s no doubting the power of flirtation to make people feel a bit special. Before things get too steamy, let’s move this on to a business footing. Because the chances are your firm is keen to catch the eye of potential customers.  Here at Holyrood PR we know for certain that a wee bit of business “flirting” is essential, especially in the sometimes unglamorous world of B2B selling…


Love Island launched on Monday 4th June on ITV2 and the viewing figures were ‘’pretty saucy’’. The show was the highest rated programme at 9pm across all digital channels, winning the slot with 2.9m and 16.4% share, at one point peaking with 3.4m. Monday’s launch was ITV2’s highest overnight rating since records go back, overtaking the previous record holder which, funnily enough, was also Love Island – series 3 finale which brought in 2.6m viewers with 12.5% share.

Some pretty powerful figures. But what can you as a business learn from Love Island?


  1. ALLOWING YOURSELF TO RECOVER FROM PREVIOUS BAD EXPERIENCES

Look. We’ve all been there before. You’re in a committed relationship and you just want out. Neither party is happy. They’re taking your money. Your sanity. Your reputation. Gone.

You don’t ever want to be in a new relationship again.

We’re still talking about business here, right? Not personal, intimate relationships? Ahh, okay.

Just like our Love Island stars, unsurprisingly, each, if not all, of them have recently came out of a bad relationship. Some even confirmed that their last relationship ended 3 months ago but the application process for the show started 6 months ago…

Anyway, the truth of the matter here is that, although each of them had previous bad experiences with a significant other, they’ve managed to bounce back, put themselves out there and are, ultimately, looking for a relationship that will make them happy… if not a little bit more profitable.

And that’s what you as a business should do too. Don’t let previous bad experiences with external companies and agencies deter you from ever entering into a partnership again. Instead, dust yourself down, shop around for a more reputable one and begin forward-planning for the future.


PR success

Welcome to the world of successful PR campaigns at our Edinburgh public relations agency – as evidenced by the instant fix of headlines we delivered for a wide number of our clients. To make sure our new client feel the love we lock down coverage from the very first media releases we produce on behalf of our clients


We get some clients through our doors that have worked with previous PR agencies and, sadly, have yielded few to zero results in the course of their time together. We pride ourselves on delivering instant results – so, as soon as we start working with someone, we pick the cream of their stories as fast possible.

You should open yourself up to another agency to help you. In this field, naturally, it’s best to act as quick as possible.

You might say we are the perfect rebound…

Moving on.


  1. COUPLING UP… WITH A PR AGENCY

Love Island

Fittingly, the second business lesson from Love Island to learn from is coupling up – in this case, with a PR agency.

Like we have already mentioned, the aim of the game is to stay coupled up and increase your chances of reaching the final.

Similarly, we would argue that to stay ahead of all your nearest rivals the obvious way to success is by hooking up with a PR agency.

There’s no need to dish out the margaritas and take us out for a night on the town to impress us – or in Wes’ case spend £1000 on a first date! However, if you must insist on it, then we won’t say no.


PR starter kit

The first piece of advice we’d offer any business investigating public relations is that it’s worth putting in a LOT of research. We know how difficult and time-consuming that can be, so we’ve prepared this essential business PR starter pack to save you time, effort and money. Click to find out more!


Researching a personal suitor is just as important as choosing a PR agency.

Okay, there may be some differences that we need to consider.

When searching for a PR agency, do lots of research:

  • Look online and see what they’ve been up to…
  • Check their social media accounts and see what they get up to…
  • Chat to your friends or people that they’ve been with and see what they say…

Oh, wait – maybe there are more similarities here than first envisioned.

Moving on (again)


  1. IT’S ALL SUN, SEA AND… SOCIAL MEDIA THESE DAYS

One of the greatest reasons for watching Love Island this season is purely for the reactions that social media generates. From the quick-witted GIF’s to the random hilarious pictures of Danny Dyer, it’s incredible how switched on and innovative the millennial mindset can be.

In particularly Twitter, it’s incredible the sheer volume of tweets using the #LoveIsland and the engagement and impressions that come with it.

Media publications are lapping it up too. Everyone from OK! Magazine to Cosmopolitan, from The Sun to The Independent – everyone is involved with creating stories and pushing it online. The Sun are producing content almost hourly. Demand is so high and social media is the perfect platform for promoting it.

Perhaps one of the more interesting facts Love Island on Twitter has produced is the celebrity following it has received.

Here’s some of our favourites:

Claude Littner Love Island

George Osborne

Danny Dyer

Social media for your business is a must. It’s an incredible tool for promoting your own content and directing traffic to your site. Moreover, it is a platform of which you can add some personality about yourself and start to earn that trust in your brand.

If you have any content that you can relate with current trends then great, utilise it.

Holyrood Love Island blog, anyone..?

*cough*


  1. FRIENDLY COMPETITION IS TO BE EXPECTED. JUST MAKE SURE THAT YOU’RE ‘TICKING ALL THE BOXES’

Love Island PR

Life in the villa runs at a million miles per hour. In the height of all the sexual competition, people’s emotions, apparently, are heightened and triggered more easily if situations don’t go their way.

For example, relationships seem to move forward quicker than usual, some people jump between partners with more ease, and those that are left behind appear more vulnerable and emotionally open.

It is understandable, of course. This boy or girl you were coupled up with is now with someone new, living in the same house as you, eating the same food, sleeping in the same bedroom. It can get strange. But this is to be expected.

Similarly, for businesses – including agencies such as ourselves – competition is to be expected. Other rivals or competitors that offer the same services that you do will be hungry to expand their network and wont hesitate to quash you in their wake.

But what can you do to not let this happen? Answer: ‘make sure you are ticking all the boxes’ – this appears to be a very common phrase in this seasons Love Island. Mind you, it’s not as common as the word ‘like’ – British daytime television programme This Morning, did some research and found out that in one episode the word was used a staggering 219 times!

Anyway, minor tangent to one side, make sure you are giving your clients a reason to stick around. Make sure you are going above and beyond for them, meeting and, as often as possible, exceeding their expectations.


Award-winning PR agency

Award-winning Edinburgh PR agency: we walked away with one Gold and two Silvers for our creative work for clients – as well as collecting prized finalist awards in no less than six other categories. It means that Holyrood PR has been on a hot streak of Gold wins in the PRide Awards – the PR industry’s Oscars – since 2011


Going the extra mile for your clients should come second nature to you as a business. Without them we wouldn’t function or, well, exist.

Give them your all and they won’t have any reason to choose another relationship.


  1. GET YOUR BUSINESS ‘SUMMER READY’

Love Island Business

It’s strange that none of the blokes have a lick of hair anywhere on their body apart from their head when they first wandered in to the villa.

We also started asking ourselves how many hours prior to air date do they spend in the gym or on the tanning beds – all in an effort to make themselves more visually appealing to the opposite gender.

Similarly, the woman must surely put in effort in all departments to find themselves a suitor.

Both put, what they personally deem as, groundwork in to appeal to one another and hope to reach the final to win the money. Or, in all fairness, to find love…

Ambitions aside, it’s all about getting yourself ‘summer ready’.

We could apply a similar approach to your business.

At Holyrood PR we live by a reboot, restore and revitalise approach.


Reboot, restore and revitalise

It’s a time for clearing out old stuff that’s no longer any use. For rebooting, restoring and revitalising. So here’s our guide to refreshing your PR – an at-a-glance guide on how to reboot, restore and revitalise your public relations. It’s your chance to benchmark your existing service provider and to make sure you are getting maximum value for your money.  Or if you’re considering using PR for the first time, it will give you a vital and timesaving head start on what to look for.


Look at your current PR and marketing activities. Do you use GSE displays when participating in trade shows? Is your online presence a bit drib and drab? Is the content on your site looking a bit lifeless? Are all the media outlets completely unaware of your existence? And is your social media a graveyard of activity?

It could be time to do a complete turnaround and amplify your imaging efforts. This helps to place yourself as a strong suitor to your potential clients.

Just in time for summer.


There’s plenty business lessons you can adopt from Love Island. There, I bet once you started reading this you would never in a month of Sundays be nodding your head and agreeing with that statement.

Love Island is dominating the headlines, causing an uproar on social media and everyone is talking about it. It’s now time to channel all that energy into your business.

Failing that, we can all apply to go on Love Island 2019.

Hollywood PR are an Edinburgh-based PR agency. Looking to supercharge your PR efforts? We are currently offering a one-hour free consultation to any business or brand looking to strengthen their PR presence.

If you’re interested in learning more please fill out the contact form below or give a member of the team a call on 0131 561 2244

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