Drama, romance and gossip – we all have our reasons for tuning in to Love Island, and as we bid farewell to another season of the Villa, it’s time to take a look at what lies in store on the outside for the final couples. It’s no secret that for many contestants, Love Island is the golden gateway to lucrative brand deals.
However, is the social media landscape the same as it was for previous contestants? Social trends, platform algorithm updates and influencer culture have meant it’s not as easy as it perhaps once was for Love Island contestants. We’ve already seen Ekin Su lose a £1m contract as a prime example of what can go wrong. If Molly-Mae had left the famous villa in 2023, would she have been as successful as she is now?
On top of an ever-changing social media landscape, we also saw the first social media ban for the contestants, meaning family members could not run the accounts whilst the individuals were at the villa. Although the move had the best intentions, we’ve seen the knock-on effect post-finale with the average follower count of the finalists dropping by over 50% when compared to the previous season.
To mark the end of the Winter season, we decided to take a deeper dive into the final contestant’s social profiles. Over a series of articles, we’ll ask the questions: how much could they earn, where are their followers from and what could they promote, and the ultimate question: will they have the Molly-Mae effect?
In this blog, we take a look into Instagram, taking a snapshot of their overall follower base and using Inbeats calculator to estimate how much the contestants could now potentially earn, and given their behaviour in the Villa, what they could possibly promote.
Kai Fagan
First up we have Kai Fagan, the 24-year-old school teacher and winner of Love Island 2023 along with his partner Sanam. Kai’s followers jumped overnight after the announcement and he now sits comfortably with 216,000 followers. Using InBeats influencer calculator, we reckon he could potentially earn somewhere between £1.3K – £1.7K a post. But which company should he partner with? Stationary? Kai could put his art ‘talent’ to good use.
- Followers: 216K
- How much he could earn: £1.3K – £1.7K
- Product partnership: – WH Smith
Sanam Harrinanan
The lovely Sanam, the first-ever Casa Amour contestant to win, has grown her platform to 217,000 followers over the last couple of days and could expect to earn between £1.2 – £1.5K per Instagram post. Sanam’s hidden talent was supposedly “crying on demand”. We figured not everyone is as talented as Sanam, and as you can’t always rely on the heavens – why not carry some eye drops?
- Followers: 217K
- How much she could earn per post: £1.2K – £1.5K
- Product partnership: – Optrex
Ron Hall
Captain swivel himself, it’s safe to say it was a rocky start for the man whose head turned more times than a spinning top, however after a long road of self discovery he finally won us over. What should he promote? All that turning quickly can have unwanted side effects, so best to smooth those aches and strains with some deep heat.
- Followers: 153K
- How much he would earn: £1K – £1.3K
- Product partnership: – Deep Heat
Lana Jenkins
Similarly to Ron, Lana also had a rocky journey in the Villa, however, the couple pulled it back in the end to finish in admirable 2nd place. We originally had Lana down as someone who would be greatly suited to a career in children’s television for some reason… however after watching her in the baby challenge we think she would be better suited at the other end of the spectrum.
- Followers: 287K
- How much she would earn: £1.8K – £2.1K
- Product partnership: – Ella One
Samie Elishi
We liked Samie, and out of all the contestants we think she will be on a lot of fashion brands’ target lists to wrap up a partnership deal. Watch this space as over the next month we’ll see who she’ll inevitably partner up with. (PLT we’re looking at you 
)
- Followers: 319K
- How much she would earn: £2.2K – £2.6K
- Product partnership: – Fashion, probably high end.
Tom Clare
Oh Tom, where do we even start? The professional football player from Barnsley came into the Villa and straight away he hopped from girl to girl like a pogo stick (possibly a good partnership right there). Given he knows the advantages of a terrace we figured if there are any decking companies out there, they should get in quick because let’s be honest, Tom doesn’t hang around.
- Followers: 253k
- How much he would earn: £1.8K – £2.1K
- Product partnership: – Construction/balconies.
Shaq Muhammed
To quote Will “The man wears ‘ripped skinny jeans’” need we say anymore? Boohoo Man, watch this space.
- Followers: 122K
- How much he would earn: £750 – £1K
- Product partnership: – Boohoo man “ripped skinny jeans”
Tanya Manhenga
If you’re on Twitter you’ll be aware that Tanya hasn’t come across particularly well to the fanbase, especially after movie night. What do we think the perfect partnership for Tanya would be according to the Twitter population? Lighter fluid, and we will let you draw your own conclusions from this one.
- Followers: 149K
- How much she would earn: £1.1K – £1.3K
- Product partnership: – Lighter fluid.
Will Young aka “Farmer Will”
Will will no doubt be the biggest potential earner with his massive 1.6M following on TikTok. Given we’re looking at Instagram specifically we calculated that the farmer/dancer/nail painter/fashion icon could potentially earn a whopping £2.5k – £3.4k a post. Although we think he could be the perfect partner for eBay, we also think NFU car insurance wouldn’t go amiss – break into that younger market (those young farmers, ooarr).
- Followers: 417K
- How much he would earn: £2.5k – £3.4k
- Product partnership: – NFU car insurance.
Jessie Wynter
The Aussie already had a massive following heading into the Villa which has grown substantially during her time on the UK series. Brands looking to attract audiences in both the UK and Australia should take note. We think an airline would be the perfect match because let’s face it – if Will and Jessie want to take a crack at a relationship they’re going to need a lot of air miles…
- Followers: 616K
- How much she would earn: £3.2K – £3.8K
- Product partnership: – Airlines
Honourable mentions:
Olivia Hawkins
The drama queen herself, love or hate her – she did make the villa particularly interesting and she’s already amassed quite the following. Expected to earn between £1.6 – £2k isn’t bad going for the 27 year old. What do we think she should represent? Kitchen knives for backstabbing, sorry we mean cooking.
- Followers: 204.1K
- How much she would earn: £1.6K – £2K
- Product partnership: – Kitchen knives.
Martin Akinola
We couldn’t leave Martin out, he did make us laugh and provide us with a great meme. With a fairly low following, Martin could be a stand alone micro influencer. Any popcorn brands should look out for this guy, the content alone would gain some traction – and at relatively low cost per post 😉
- Followers: 22.3K
- How much he would earn: £273 – £325
- Product partnership: – Popcorn (Propercorn)
So there you have it, our rundown of the final candidates (and some honourable mentions).
Keep an eye out for part 2, where we will continue to monitor the contestants and analyse the vastly different influencer / social media market which awaits them in their quest to become the next big thing.
*Follower count accurate as of 15/03/2023
