Yearning has always sold. So much so that romance reading obsessions — especially of the Young Adult (YA) variety — are becoming global entertainment franchises. And brands are asking, ‘How can we be part of this?’
Colleen Hoover (or #CoHo) is the OG. Her book, It Ends with Us, enjoyed a TikTok-fuelled resurgence years after publication and was turned into a film in 2024, becoming the highest-grossing romantic box office success since 2018’s A Star Is Born.
Streamers quickly cottoned-on. Heartstopper, Bridgerton and My Life with the Walter Boys landed on Netflix while Prime Video snapped up The Summer I Turned Pretty. And hey presto, a new cultural phenomenon was born.
The success of YA romance is largely down to the way the stories explore consent, identity, sexuality and healthier relationships with candour and emotional immediacy. Younger viewers find positive language references and role models. Older audiences (including yours truly) see what we want for our children… whilst also enjoying a little spice on the side.
Now the genre is getting even hotter. Off Campus made consent explicit: its extremely hot men respected boundaries while its equally hot women retained agency. Heated Rivalry used a secret relationship between hockey players to explore queer sexuality, masculinity and the cost of hiding who you are. And now that Netflix is reportedly developing Hannah Grace’s Icebreaker, hockey and poor romantic decisions clearly remain a winning combination.
But what makes these shows such a sexy proposition for brands?
The audience is ready to go. An adaptation arrives with readers who already love the characters, await pivotal scenes and care deeply about casting. Platforms get a proven audience; brands get a clear view of who the show will reach.
Romance creates unusually brandable worlds. Sure, horror can command attention, but partnership opportunities are limited when everyone’s on the brink of being murdered. Romance is built around dates, food, sport, gifts, travel and intimacy. Sportswear, beauty, food, jewellery, travel and sexual-wellness brands can all have credible roles, provided, obviously, everyone involved is a consenting adult.
Products can carry emotional meaning, too. Fans notice the coffee order, trainers, fragrance and necklace because each detail might reveal who their ‘endgame’ will be. If they love the characters, show and soundtrack, some of that affection will rub off on the brand.
Crucially, the brand is baked into the story, so it cannot be skipped. Audiences may avoid an ad break or scroll past a sponsored post, but they cannot ignore the meal shared or the gift exchanged before the inevitable third-episode misunderstanding. So product integrations ride, rather than interrupt, the cultural wave.
The impact keeps travelling beyond the show, too. Fans clip, debate and reshare favourite moments for weeks or months, giving integrations a social afterlife. My Insta feed is still full of Off Campus’s Garrett Graham even though the show came out months ago. I’m not unhappy about this.
But how can marketers capitalise on this embarrassment of riches? The strongest partnerships come from brands getting woven into script development from day one. This way, a product can reveal character, create a ritual or move a relationship forward. That’s true integration.
Brand integrations from the first series of Off Campus proved so successful — with Liquid IV stealing the show — that the second series was closed for integrations by the time of its official announcement.
Integrations for youth-focused brands may become even more valuable as access to younger audiences on social platforms tightens with bans for certain age groups. As conventional social reach becomes less certain, culturally relevant entertainment offers brands another route in.
There are, however, some important notes. Brands must distinguish YA from more explicit New Adult stories, verify the ages of characters and audiences. Plus, the brand must match the narrative. Fans can smell an attempt to jump on the bandwagon from miles away.
The winning approach is not to slap a logo onto ‘smut’ and congratulate everyone on being culturally relevant. It’s to understand why these adaptations resonate: longing, identity, fantasy, belonging and the joy of watching attractive people taking time to communicate properly.
Of course, other youth genres can deliver reach, fandom or spectacle. But YA romance book adaptations combine all three with emotional intimacy, positive purchasing occasions and remarkable longevity. For brands that can enter the story without killing the mood, the rewards are hotter than the union of Garrett Graham and Hannah Wells.