The 2023 Eurovision Song Contest will be broadcast from Liverpool, in the UK, on behalf of last year’s winning nation Ukraine. Ukraine is unable to host the event due to the ongoing Russian invasion, an unprecedented circumstance in the history of Eurovision.

Now in its 67th year, the contest was established post-war to bring Europe closer together through a shared televised experience. Today it’s the world’s biggest live music event.

The brief was to create a brand expressing the theme ‘United by Music’. Celebrating this year’s unique Ukraine/UK partnership in a way that represents the spirit of Eurovision and is inclusive of all 37 competing countries.

Created in collaboration between a UK and a Ukraine agency. The brand launched on January 31st, running globally across broadcast, online, social media, print, OOH and UK city and transport dressing.

Inspired by research showing hearts synchronise when we experience music together, the concept ‘160 million hearts beat as one’ is visually expressed as a sound wave of many hearts that beat together as one.

A universal concept that is as culturally relevant and accessible in the UK and Ukraine, as it is across the world. The idea embodies 2023’s theme – reflecting music’s power to unify, and the song contest’s founding spirit of togetherness. Visually the idea references the iconic heart symbol from the official Eurovision logo.

The palette is a vibrant, celebratory interpretation of the Ukraine and UK flag colours.

The typeface is ‘Penny Lane’ designed by a Liverpool-born typographer, inspired by the city’s street signs, and reminiscent of the bold, condensed style of typographic music posters.

Copywriting plays on Liverpool’s famous song ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’.

The heartbeat graphics also adapt to all 37 competing nations’ flag colours.

For 2023’s theme ‘United by Music’ the creative idea is ‘160 million hearts beat as one’.

The visual expression is a sound wave of hearts that beat together as one. The angle of the hearts echoes the iconic heart shape from the official Eurovision logo.

Whilst iconic, Eurovision can be seen as cheesy. The execution shifts perceptions, promoting credibility. Moving from glitzy, CGI styles of recent years to a bold look influenced by music festival graphics.

The palette is a vibrant, celebratory interpretation of the Ukraine and UK flag colours.

The typeface is ‘Penny Lane’ designed by a Liverpool-born typographer, inspired by the city’s street signs, and reminiscent of the bold, condensed style of typographic music posters.

Copywriting plays on Liverpool’s famous song ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’.

The heartbeat graphics also adapt to all 37 competing nations’ flag colours.

Designed in collaboration between a UK and a Ukraine agency.

Following the official launch on January 31st #Eurovision2023 trended on Twitter in the UK at #1.

Since January, socials have exploded with more than 108M impressions across Twitter and Instagram, reaching a further 10M on Facebook. There have been 101M video views on YouTube, representing 3.8M hours of watch time, and over 69M video views across Instagram and TikTok, building excitement for tickets.

When tickets released on March 7th the Grand Final sold out in 36 minutes, with all 54,000 tickets across nine live shows selling out within 90 minutes. #Eurovision trended on Twitter at #7 globally and #1 in the UK.

This is the first time that all nine Eurovision shows have sold out on the first day.

It was also the highest trending ticket release for any event in the last five years in terms of Google Search Interest worldwide, according to Google Trends.