If you’re a reality show lover who wasn’t watching Love Island USA this summer, you may have felt a little out of the loop. In the pop culture world, it seems like everyone has been watching the American version of this dating reality show, which started in the UK, currently in its seventh season. The premise brings single people together to couple up and try to win a $100,000 prize.
Having aired every single day except Wednesdays from June 3 to July 13 on Peacock, the show has generated significant online discourse, spawning a number of viral memes. Plus, Peacock reports that Love Island is its “most-watched entertainment series on mobile devices, with nearly 30% of viewership happening on phones and tablets.”
With such a large mobile-first audience, it’s no wonder that Love Island has also been a boon to brands, both official partners and not, looking to tap into the zeitgeist and engage with heavily online consumers. We used our social listening and influencer marketing solutions to get the data behind the booming discussion and see which brands successfully rode the Love Island wave.
Dive deeper into the trends shaping the streaming industry in our Consumer Insights: Video Streaming Market report.
How big was the online buzz around Love Island USA season 7?
Mentions of Love Island from June 3 to July 13, 2025, on 17 social media channels including X, Reddit, Bluesky, Snapchat, and Pinterest
First, let’s start with some perspective. Remember the NBA Finals? From Game 1 to Game 7, the Finals generated about 2.51 million social media mentions. In those same weeks, Love Island generated about 4.39 million mentions on social media.
Over the entire course of Love Island season seven, from June 3 to July 13, the show racked up nearly 13 million social media mentions in total. These are bigger-than-Labubu volumes. And interestingly, the Love Island discussion didn’t peak with the finale. Instead, the biggest night of show-related buzz was July 1 with the airing of a particularly drama-filled episode 26, during which contestants received anonymous letters from one another filled with grievances and criticism. Around 9pm central time, just as episode 26 ended, online discussion spiked to about 180,000 mentions (a 10x increase from the day before) as viewers processed, debated, and analyzed what had just unfolded.
Love Island official partnerships and the Duolingo campaign
Love Island had integrated brand partners — including Cerave, Maybelline New York, and Coffee-Mate — whose products were featured in the show. Plus, it partnered with brands like Jose Cuervo, Instacart, Pepsi Wild Cherry, and TheraBreathe to create commercials starring the contestants.
Perhaps most surprising was the show’s social media activation with Duolingo. Instead of featuring the brand’s app, the posts feature its mascot Duo (whom the brand “killed” earlier this year) as a contestant on the show with the help of some creative video editing.
Our influencer marketing analysis found that Duolingo’s six Love Island Instagram posts reached an estimated 8.9 million social media users and generated about 124,000 engagement actions.
The brand’s unconventional, story- and humor-driven approach paid off. Our analysis of the campaign within our influencer marketing solution found that Duolingo’s six Love Island Instagram posts (published just before and in the first week of season seven) generated about $400,700 in Estimated Media Value (EMV).
How brands joined the Love Island conversation
Beyond official partnerships, many brands engaged with the thriving Love Island conversation by offering their own takes on the memes and trends that popped along the way. Here are just some of the many successful examples.
Urban Outfitters
One of the most-memed moments of Love Island USA came on episode 12 when one contestant, Huda, reveals to another, Nic, that she has a daughter. The conversation, in which Huda says “I’m a mommy” to a misunderstanding Nic, who replies “Mamacita” and “Mommy?”, went viral online. Urban Outfitters took the meme for a spin to promote the also viral Micro Hydro Flask available at its stores. The clever take on the format generated more than 14,300 likes and about $19,700 in EMV.
Scrub Daddy
That “I’m a mommy” meme we just talked about? It was a big one! Scrub Daddy’s video take featuring audio from the show has gotten more than 29,000 likes, achieving an impressive 4.37% engagement rate and over $41,200 in EMV.
L.A. Chargers
Reality dating shows are often thought to have overwhelmingly female viewership, but Love Island has gotten attention for revealing the cracks in those assumptions. The NFL’s Los Angeles Chargers highlighted the overlap in their audiences in one popular Instagram post in which players shared their opinions about the show. It generated about $18,000 in EMV.
Spirit Halloween
Its namesake holiday is months away, but Spirit Halloween used the “dream date” meme that originated from Love Island USA episode 13 to stay in the conversation. Its version of the viral screenshot format generated over 37,000 likes, a 3.12% engagement rate, and about $44,800 in EMV.
Learn more about hopping onto viral trends in our Ultimate Guide to Trendjacking.
Love Island USA takeaways for marketers
This summer, Love Island USA did more than just dominate streaming, it took over social media and the internet at large. The brands that took notice in time to leverage the moment were those attuned to their audience’s interests, even when they crept beyond their traditional realms, as with the Los Angeles Chargers and Spirit Halloween.
While official partners like Duolingo got in on the ground floor with the hit season, many others captured significant engagement by following the discussion in real time. Let this be a lesson to marketers everywhere: Brands don’t necessarily need formal partnerships to make a splash with trending topics and content if they have an agile, culturally intelligent and aware social strategy.
