I actually debated whether this post belonged in Sports, Politics, or Marketing but settled on this post. Despite having played on a soccer (football to non-Americans) youth team in my younger days, my main goal throughout the local World Cup activities has been to stay as far away from Boston Stadium (actually Gillette Stadium and temporarily renamed.) I live about 20 minutes from the stadium and I imagine that traffic congestion is crazy on game days. However, there has been a powerful example of marketing going on since the event started. Scotland is playing here and they brought along thousands of fans and their Tartan Army which is a team of bagpipers in kilts. All of these folks have generated amazing goodwill from the press and the Massachusetts and Rhode Island citizenry with their actions since arriving here. The Tartan Army has visited both Boston Childrens Hospital and Hasbro Childrens Hospital (in Providence) to perform and also make a sizable cash donation to them. Scottish fans in Boston have caused the bars to run out of beer but have been model tourists, even cleaning up after themselves, unlike the typical drinkers in these bars. There was also a Scottish fellow who walked across the U.S. in a kilt to raise money for a charitable cause. He ended his journey in Boston and had nothing but praise for the greetings and goodwill that he received from Americans throughout his journey. The mutual goodwill has gotten to the point where the radical mayor of Boston, no fan of whites and especially of whites of European descent, has agreed to become a sister city with Glasgow. You can bet, that when the Scottish team plays next (might be today), the local fans will all be rooting for them, no matter the team they play. I have full confidence that this feeling of goodwill will last well beyond the World Cup and would not be surprised that Scotland gets a mini-boom in tourism from Americans now much more interested in its people. It has been and continues to be a case study in successful branding, as unintentional as it may have been. A fantastic performance.
I went to Glasgow once for business. Out of the airport in Lockerbie, I got in a cab with a Glaswegian cabbie and gave him my hotel in Glasgow. We struck up a conversation and I simply could not understand a word he was saying in his deep Scottish brogue. I was actually getting concerned that he would think that I was insulting him or not paying attention because I was having trouble keeping up my side of the conversation as I was not sure what exactly was being talked about at the time. Towards the end of the ride, I got a little better at understanding him and he told me in no uncertain terms that I absolutely had to have haggis, eggs and black pudding for breakfast the next day to truly experience Glasgow. So, I did. The eggs and haggis were fine; the black pudding not so much. Black pudding is one of only two foods that I will not eat again. I still remember the awful aftertaste of blood sausage. I did not realize that haggis is banned in the USA, but it was in the news as a sidelight that the Scots here were surprised that they could not find any.