Merseyside brand marketing specialist Wild Thang says Eurovision led to a surge in merchandise orders from local and national customers. Tony McDonough reports

Brand marketing specialist Wild Thang says it produced Eurovision-branded merchandise for multiple corporate customers in the run-up to the event in May.

In April, a month before the global musical extravaganza came to Liverpool, Wild Thang urged businesses in the city region to take advantage of a decision by organisers to allow SMEs to use Eurovision branding for free for non-commercial and non-retail purposes.

Now Andrew Dwerryhouse, founder and managing director of Bootle-based Wild Thang has told MBN that multiple customers, both inside and beyond the city region, took full advantage of the offer.

He said: “It has given us an incredible sense of pride producing B2B Eurovision merchandise for many small, medium and large local and national companies including fast food giant McDonalds.

“They all wanted to say they were ‘proud to welcome’ Eurovision across the Liverpool city region and the UK.”

Eurovision was a major triumph for the city region. The city had secured the contest in place of Ukraine, winners of the contest in 2022. The Russian invasion had made staging the event impossible.

Liverpool beat several other cities in its bid to host Eurovision and it made sure Ukraine was fully included in the celebrations.

In the run-up to the contest, which took place at ACC Liverpool on May 13, it is estimated an extra 500,000 visitors descended on the city – significantly more than than the 100,000 forecast. It is believed spending during the two weeks could have hit £200m.

Liverpool City Council’s Eurovision Village at the Pier Head alone welcomed 250,000 visitors during the nine days it was open. And Liverpool BID Company reported the city centre had an additional 384,036 visitors – an increase of 13.2% on 2022.

Wild Thang is one one Merseyside’s best-known SMEs and Andrew was determined the whole team would fully embrace what he described as a “once-in-a-lifetime event”.

Having recently undergone a £2m expansion, the firm supplies a full range of branded marketing materials for clients across multiple business sectors. It will put a business logo on just about anything.

“We believe our world-class team strategically selected a range of products that perfectly complemented the Eurovision theme,” explained Andrew.

“This allowed businesses and organisations to express their love for the competition in style and say they were ‘Proud To Welcome’.

“Our local business community has embraced and understood that Liverpool and the UK have been hosting on behalf of Ukraine, so have fully adopted, supported and celebrated Ukrainian culture, heritage and sovereignty across the whole of the Eurovision event.”

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On the eve of the Eurovision final the Wild Thang office was transformed with Eurovision branding and staff took part in a karaoke contest.

Andrew added: “Wild Thang went above and beyond to help create a Eurovision company experience like no other, all in the spirit of raising funds for the Ukraine disaster fund and the John Haynes foundation.

“It was especially wonderful to be part of supporting two other incredible charities, one local Strawberry Field and one focused on the Association of Ukrainians In Great Britain. It truly was a night to remember.”