Entered by: BRAND UKRAINE NGO

The Eurovision Song Contest 2023 was scheduled to have been organised in Ukraine as Ukraine won Eurovision 2022 in Turin, Italy, but Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine threatened the security of teams and guests.

The United Kingdom proposed to host the event in Liverpool on behalf of Ukraine. The UK and its people showed great support and solidarity by co-organising the song contest with Ukrainian production teams, including Ukrainian hosts and performers, and giving online and offline platforms to showcase the uniqueness of Ukrainian culture.

TheUnityWave flashmob was launched by BRAND UKRAINE team in close co-operation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine to demonstrate solidarity and unity between Ukraine and the UK during the Eurovision week, which became another example of a close and successful partnership between the two countries and peoples.

Before the start of #TheUnityWave, its key audiences — Ukrainians and the British — had already actively demonstrated their support (through combined Ukrainian &British flags, blue-yellow lighting of famous buildings in Liverpool, etc.), while the flash mob showed unity in the digital dimension as well — with joint posts on Instagram and stories using an AR-mask with the Ukrainian-British hearts.

Traditionally, during the weeks of the song contest, social media users create a huge amount of content, with the topic trending. Given its relevance (and its ever-increasing growth in the lead-up to the finals of the contest), it was a good opportunity to engage the audience in a digital campaign. A recent Instagram update that allows posting a collaborative post was a perfect way to engage audiences using a platform native approach.

This quick and simple format is perfect for various groups of people and institutions – friends, family members, co-workers, similar organisations and counterparts from Ukraine and the UK. Considering the tone and speed of social media posts that surround the Eurovision Song Contest, the team also wanted to create some fun, emotional, personal instrument to engage people. Producing an AR-filter for Instagram was a good instrument to give followers to show their unity and appreciation.  The AR-filter was designed to be applicable for many faces at the same time, to encourage posting selfies not only alone, but with friends.

TheUnityWave flash mob started on May 10, the last week of Eurovision, as part of the #OpenYourHeartForUkraine communication campaign. More than 30 UK and Ukrainian partners took part, including state leaders, governments, cultural institutions, celebrities and even animals. TheUnityWave started with a joint publication by @ukraine.ua and @lovegreatbritain (the official Instagram profiles of the respective countries). This wave became a symbolic moment of the campaign, as its format opened the opportunity for partners from Ukraine and the UK to share a common message and emphasise the importance of solidarity.

Visual materials and texts were developed for each pair of partners who joined the wave. For example, the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Rishi Sunak in a joint post shared a specially created video about unity between the countries.

To support the wave of unity on social networks and encourage even more users to join the campaign and interact with its content, @ukraine.ua, the official Instagram profile of Ukraine, also launched an AR filter for stories with British-Ukrainian flags and hearts as the main symbol of the #OpenYourHeartForUkraine campaign.

The campaign reached over 5 million digital contacts. More than 30 top leaders, institutions, and influencers joined the flashmob, and 15+ media covered the case. The AR-filter reached over 130,000 impressions. This campaign proved that the medium really does enhance the message. Simple yet engaging instrument of collaborative posts on Instagram helped to spread the message creatively and effectively and symbolise the main idea of the flashmob - unity and solidarity of two nations.

 The campaign results demonstrated that the core approach to ensuring inclusion in projects was the correct one. A huge number of partners played a great role in reaching various audiences and motivating them to join the campaign.