Scratching an itch

The New York Times highlights a potentially brilliant use of consumer insight by the Ohio Lottery.

Its new campaign focuses not on the excitement of winning but on the joy of scratching.  The Ohio Lottery discovered that for many players, the emotional payoff comes not from winning (although certainly everyone wants to win) but rather from the physical act of scratching off the instant tickets.

The ad agency's account supervisor provides the example of one person who keeps several instant tickets in his wallet, so that when his day gets stressful he can take out his ticket and a coin, start scratching, and escape for a moment.