An Australian brand is celebrating record sales after landing a huge partnership with one of the UK’s most popular reality shows.
More than five million Brits tuned in to watch Love Island this year – the show’s biggest audience since its launch in 2015.
It’s since become a global phenomenon, with audiences around the world including Aussies and Americans, becoming obsessed with the bikini-clad dating show.
It’s because of this, sunglasses brand Quay Australia, decided to collaborate with the culturally iconic series – designing a range worn by the “islanders” during the eight-week show.
And after seeing how girls and guys in the villa rocked the sunglasses, shoppers were quick to snap them up, the brand’s CEO Jodi Bricker told news.com.au.
“Since the show has begun, we’ve seen a lot of excitement from our customers on the partnership, globally,” she said.
“In the UK, we’ve seen a spike in traffic each night the show airs and double-digit growth in traffic since last month.
“The styles the islanders have been loving are also influencing our customer’s choices – the top five selling styles in the UK in June have all been worn on the show.”
It’s a huge result for a brand born from humble beginnings in Melbourne in 2004 and comes after it was sold by the original founders, Linda and Allen Hammond and their son Zak, to Boston-based private equity firm Summit Partners in April last year.
As a result, the Quay team wanted to push the brand to new heights, choosing to sponsor the show to increase its brand awareness outside of Australia.
“Sunglasses are a staple on Love Island and Quay sunnies have been worn nonstop by islanders every season,” Jodi explained.
“We know our community loves the show and has been influenced by islanders such as Amber Gill, Cartier Surjan and Caroline Viehweg, who all wore Quays on previous seasons. “As we advanced our marketing strategy this year, we knew we wanted to test a new approach to collaborations with an integrated broadcast partnership, while giving our fans the best specs of their lives with a fun new collaboration collection.”
More than 25 different designs were proudly worn on-screen, including several polarized sunnies, priced between $85 and $120 – and the brand’s current bestsellers, the $85 “High Key” aviator style frames.
“We launched the Quay x Love Island collection with 16 styles that our product team designed and curated with the islanders, location and show as their muse,” Jodi said.
“Once casting was underway, the islanders were given a wide selection of sunnies to choose from – bestsellers, polarized staples, and new summer drops with vibrant pops of colour, including our official collection.
“They have all been styling themselves as they enter the villa, and we love what they’ve been wearing.
“We also get the heads up from the ITV team on special requests from islanders or events they are planning, such as the blue party, and regularly send new options to the villa for the islanders to try.”
One of the things Jodi said the brand had enjoyed so much about the partnership was seeing how the islanders wear the products, revealing there’s been several surprises during this season.
“We’ve certainly been entertained by Davide rocking his Quay sunnies over his prescription glasses,” she said.
“We offer prescription glasses and sunnies in the US, so the team is dying to get their hands on his prescription to help him solve that problem.
“We also love seeing the islanders pop sunnies on in bed, as the first step in their daily morning routine.”
While the UK season has just concluded, with Davide and Ekin-Su winning the crown, Quay is also sponsoring the US version which has just kicked off and is airing on Channel 9.
“New styles are being added to the collection each week as they appear on air, so be sure to check back regularly,” she said.
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