ITV Creative's 2022 Love. We Own It. campaign launched Love Island Series 8 with a 60-second animated film packed with easter eggs and character-driven
ITV Creative Bets on Animation to Relaunch Love Island for Series 8
ITV Creative's "Love. We Own It." is a 60-second animated television and digital promo produced for the United Kingdom launch of Love Island Series 8 in May 2022, combining 2D and 3D character animation with storytelling to celebrate the show's cultural legacy across film, OOH outdoor, and print formats.
Love Island occupies a singular position in British popular culture. As the original flagship dating format on ITV2, it returns each summer to dominate social conversation, generate viral moments, and redefine the shared viewing habits of a generation of UK audiences. For Series 8, ITV Creative made a deliberate creative choice: rather than lean on live-action footage or talking-head promos typical of the genre, the team commissioned an animated film that could capture the show's irreverence, warmth, and self-awareness in a single, unified visual language. The resulting campaign, built around the platform idea "Love. We Own It.", positions ITV not merely as broadcaster but as the authoritative home of the format.
The campaign premiered on 14 May 2022 before Britain's Got Talent, as reported by shots.net, giving it immediate primetime exposure to a mass UK audience before any digital amplification. In the United Kingdom, where broadcast television continues to function as the highest-reach single-point media event available to advertisers and promoters, that placement carries strategic weight. The promo was supported across OOH outdoor and print media, extending the animated visual identity into public spaces ahead of the series launch.
ITV occupies a defended but contested position in the United Kingdom's entertainment landscape. The broadcaster's ITV Hub streaming platform — the digital home of Love Island alongside ITV2 — operates in direct competition with Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, both of which have invested heavily in dating and reality formats targeting younger demographics. According to Parrot Analytics, Netflix held a commanding global demand share for streaming originals in Q4 2022, while Amazon Prime Video maintained its own significant share of streaming audiences, intensifying the competitive pressure on free-to-air and hybrid broadcasters like ITV to assert format ownership at every touchpoint.
The strategic rationale behind "Love. We Own It." is legible in its title alone. ITV Creative is not simply promoting a series; it is staking a territorial claim. Love Island is ITV's most culturally resonant property among 16-to-34-year-old viewers in the United Kingdom, and the campaign idea explicitly frames that relationship as exclusive and non-transferable. By commissioning animation rather than conventional promo production, ITV Creative signals confidence — that the format is iconic enough to be rendered, celebrated, and satirised through illustration without losing audience recognition. The easter eggs embedded throughout the film, including nods to villa landmarks, slow-motion entrances, and the return of fan-favourite character Ellie Belly, function as a direct communication to the show's most loyal UK viewers, rewarding familiarity and deepening emotional investment ahead of the new series.
Animator and designer Leanne Rule served as co-director and 3D character artist on "Love. We Own It.", working alongside directing duo KITCHEN, who handled 2D asset creation and compositing in After Effects, as reported by Little Black Book. Production company Jelly executive-produced the film, with Sue Loughlin serving as executive producer and Tom Henneberry as producer, per shots.net. On the ITV Creative side, creatives Heidi Martin and James Copeman led the agency work, with Jill Findlay as agency producer and Charlotte Berman as campaign manager, as documented by The Drum.
The film's visual approach blends the warmth of character-driven animation with the specific iconography of Love Island's eight-series history. Leanne Rule's 3D character work gives each animated figure a tactile presence — a deliberate counterpoint to the glossy, high-production-value live-action footage that typically defines dating show marketing. KITCHEN's 2D layer adds graphic confidence and compositional dynamism, creating a hybrid aesthetic that feels contemporary without abandoning the show's sun-drenched, romantic visual identity. As reported by itsnicethat.com, the collaboration between Rule and KITCHEN produced an animation described as full of sass and self-confidence, reflecting the campaign idea at the level of frame composition as much as narrative content.
The 60-second runtime disciplines the storytelling. Every reference — villa landmarks, slow-motion entrances, Ellie Belly's return — must earn its screen time. The result is a piece of promotional craft that functions simultaneously as a highlight reel, a cultural celebration, and a creative statement of intent for Love Island Series 8 in the United Kingdom.
"Love. We Own It." earned a Clapboard Score of 71 out of 100, reflecting strong creative craft and strategic coherence within the TV and streaming promos category.
The campaign's YouTube upload generated over 56,000 views and more than 1,000 likes, as documented in the campaign archive, representing meaningful organic engagement for an in-house broadcast promo with no declared paid digital amplification. No independent third-party performance data — including reach figures, OOH impressions, or brand uplift metrics — is publicly available for "Love. We Own It." at the time of writing.
What the available evidence does confirm is structural effectiveness. The film premiered in one of the United Kingdom's most-watched primetime slots, before Britain's Got Talent on 14 May 2022, per shots.net, guaranteeing mass domestic reach at the point of launch. The animated format distinguishes the campaign from standard broadcast promos, increasing the likelihood of earned social sharing among Love Island's digitally active fanbase in the United Kingdom. The integration of culturally specific easter eggs functions as a retention and conversation mechanic, encouraging repeat viewing and audience commentary — both of which extend organic reach beyond the initial broadcast moment. For an in-house creative operation, "Love. We Own It." demonstrates that ITV Creative is capable of producing work that competes on craft with external agency output, consolidating brand equity around Love Island as the United Kingdom's most culturally owned dating format.
"Love. We Own It." is ITV Creative's 60-second animated promo for Love Island Series 8, launched in the United Kingdom in May 2022. It was produced with animator Leanne Rule, directing duo KITCHEN, and production company Jelly, and ran across film, OOH outdoor, and print formats to mark the show's series 8 return.
Animator and designer Leanne Rule co-directed the film alongside directing studio KITCHEN, as reported by lbbonline.com. ITV Creative creatives Heidi Martin and James Copeman led the agency work, with Jill Findlay producing and Jelly serving as production company, per shots.net and thedrum.com.
The campaign premiered in the United Kingdom on 14 May 2022 before Britain's Got Talent, per shots.net. This primetime placement gave the 60-second animated promo immediate mass domestic reach ahead of the Love Island Series 8 launch on ITV2 and ITV Hub later that month.
ITV Creative's "Love. We Own It." received a Clapboard Score of 71 out of 100. The score reflects strong creative craft and strategic clarity in the TV and streaming promos category, recognising the campaign's distinctive animated execution and culturally specific storytelling for the United Kingdom market.
The 60-second animated film includes references to signature villa landmarks, slow-motion entrances, and the return of fan-favourite Ellie Belly, as documented in the campaign archive. These elements function as direct signals to the show's most loyal UK viewers, rewarding familiarity and deepening emotional engagement ahead of the new series.
The campaign asserts ITV's exclusive cultural ownership of the dating format in the United Kingdom at a time when Netflix and Amazon Prime Video are expanding into reality programming. According to Parrot Analytics, Netflix held a dominant global streaming demand share in Q4 2022, making ITV's territorial brand claim strategically significant for UK audience retention.
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