/ Eurovision Song Contest

The Butterfly Effect

The Eurovision Song Contest has been held annually since 1956. It’s jointly organized and hosted by the European Broadcasting Union and the winning country of the previous year. In 2013, the city of Malmö joined forces with Sveriges Television (Sweden’s broadcasting corporation) and Region Skåne to host the event.

Direction

Some say music competitions are trivial at best. But this particular triviality captures the imagination of 170 million viewers across 40 countries. Those who made it happen in 2013 – Eurovision Song Contest, Sveriges Television, the country of Sweden and the city of Malmö – were brought together by a shared promise: To welcome one and all. No matter who you are or where you come from.

The 39 competing nations were given their own butterfly, inspired by their flag.

Creation

According to chaos theory, the single flap of a butterfly’s wing can start a hurricane. With this in mind, we created our own ‘butterfly effect.’ Colourful and playful, the butterflies came to symbolize the nations present. The main symbol for Eurovision Song Contest – a butterfly, of course – was a dazzling mix of all the different colours on display.

Activation

Apart from the show itself, the concept turned the whole city of Malmö into a huge celebration of community and diversity. The event itself drew a crowd of 85,000, while Eurovision Village (in Malmö’s main square) welcomed some 100,000 visitors. An Instagram campaign, urging people to share butterfly images, gave rise to thousands of face paintings, drawings and snapshots. The concept was awarded the Swedish Design Prize gold medal.

We partnered with Forsman & Bodenfors on this project.