I think the term we want is "upping the ante"

"Dustin, a turkey puppet popular on Irish TV, may represent its nation in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest, which the Republic has won a record seven times."

Here's a picture of Dustin:

Songwriter Phil Coulter, who penned the Cliff Richard Eurovision entry, Congratulations, and Sandie Shaw’s Puppet On A String, was . . . critical.

“You have to stand by quality,” he said. “If you start chasing every fad, you will trivialise the whole thing and end up in a situation where the hairdresser is more important than the songwriter.”