Pick your moments…

If you asked me to outline the perfect football match to go to as a spectator, then it would probably be Scotland playing Brazil 15 minutes walk from my house. So it’s funny that that’s exactly what happened on Sunday. Admittedly, in fantasy land Charlie Adam curls a free kick into the top left corner to seal a tight 3-2 victory in the 93rd minute but hey, 2-0 wasn’t exactly a disaster.

That all aside, holding a Scotland match in London is interesting. It’s interesting because it presents a whole new set of opportunities.

Me, in the Brazil end, looking at 35,000 Scotland fans…

By all accounts 35,000 tickets were sold by the Scottish Football Association for the game, with a whole kilt load more (myself included) picking up tickets locally. That’s a lot of Scots in one place at one time. A fact not missed by the News of The World who had shipped editions of the Scottish News of the World to N5 for the occasion. Complete with free Irn Bru.

But what else could have happened? A good chunk of the supporters I spoke to before, during and after the match were Scots born and bred, but a lot now lived down South. And a moment like this, for a weegie 10 years out of Glasgow stirs real emotion. At that moment I am a sitting duck for anything that cements that feeling.

Am I a big Dougie MacLean fan? Not really, but you could have quite easily persuaded me to buy a copy of Caledonia.

Do I have any need for additional financial products and services? Not really, but Scottish Widows could certainly have enticed me to consider what they have to offer based on name alone.

And of course, once I’m hooked, then I’m yearning to call home, to reconnect with my Caledonian brethren and to share my experience…

Emotion is such a key part of decision making that seeking out the pockets where emotions run high could well be the key to something clever, disruptive and even spectacular.

We’re all exposed to marketing messages in countless ways each day. But how many hit us at the right time? It’s feeling Scottish again, or feeling 18 again, or feeling in the first throes of love again; and it matters.

Pick your moments.

Brought into the world on Tuesday, March 29th, 2011 and filed under 1000thoughts.