Then the realisation dawned that I was fortunate enough to be watching the three hour competition (yes, it really is that long) on the BBC, and as such I was being protected from any spurious marketing activity that could be taking place. And it turns out there's rather a lot of it about.

Germany, 2011: Schwarzkopf
Cosmetics company Schwarzkopf was the official 'Presenting Partner' for the pan-European broadcast, association, event and new media activity of the Contest. The pan-Euro element would make it eligible to enter the M&M Global Awards, and the day when I hear the ESC announced on the Awards shortlist cannot come soon enough.

Schwarzkopf have form for sponsoring the competition before, back in 2009 (someone at Henkel HQ is obviously a fan). "The Eurovision Song Contest is truly a perfect fit for our Schwarzkopf brand as they are both unique in heritage and professional quality, reaching millions of homes worldwide," said Bjorn Osterdorff, Henkel's corporate director of international media (and obvious ESC enthusiast).

Finland, 2007: Nobel Biocare
Normally, it is the telecoms companies that pick up much of the sponsorship tab. TeliaSonera was one of the main sponsors in 2007, but another prolific brand that year was Nobel Biocare, a brand which claims to be Scandinavia's leading provider of aesthetic dental solutions. That would be dentures to you and me.

Germany, 2011: Lufthansa
The German national airline launched a Facebook campaign in 2011 to tempt trendy young UK travellers to visit Germany as a prime destination for weekend city breaks. Quite who they though was watching the Eurovision Song Contest is anyone's guess, but as one of the sponsors for the 2011 competition, Lufthansa decided that Eurovision offered the perfect weekend getaway to promote on Facebook. A competition was launched to get those elusive "media-savvy" individuals interacting with the brand, and flying over to watch the competition.

Azerbaijan, 2012: Xirdalan
This Azerbaijani beer brand decided to mark its association with the 2012 competition by completely redesigning its package design. The end result was hardly groundbreaking, a green bottle is still a green bottle, no matter what kind of label you put on it. But there was a nice limited edition variant that featured Eurovision branded bottle caps. There's something rather strange about  the TV spot for the new look Xirdalan, which sees the traditional "blokey" beer ad combined with a rather camp dance party. It makes you wonder if Baku really knew what to expect when they hosted to competition.

 

Sweden, 2011: LG
Confirmed details are sketchy on this, but it appears that during 2011's Melodifestivalen, the Swedish  musical extravaganza of X-Factor proportions and hysteria in which the Swedes choose their Eurovision entry, LG tried a bit of stealth advertising. Love Generation (Love Generation/LG, geddit?) were a girl band with shouty vocals and skin tight clothing that were supposedly backed by the electronics brand. Unfortunately, Love Generation's brand of muscular dance pop wasn't to the taste of Swedish audiences, and it looks like LG's stealth Eurovision strategy fell at the first hurdle.

 

But Eurovision doesn't just provide sponsorship opportunities. 50+ years of contents have created a wealth of content for marketers to draw inspiration from. Puma's Harchorus Song Contest saw groups of football fans deliver renditions of classic ESC numbers like France's Allez Ola Olé or Germany's 1982 winner, Ein bißchen Frieden.

 

And before you think I've gone overboard on the whole Eurovision marketing connections, nothing compares to this blog, which is dedicated to the UK Eurovision stars Bucks Fizz, and their long brand association with  Sharp electronics. This is about as niche a advertising blog as you're ever likely to come across, but it does read like a marketing time capsule from the 1980s. Something of guilty pleasure, like Eurovision itself.