Fanning emotions

Spent the last few days at, or thinking about, a couple of conferences I attended last week. The first was Sport Marketing 360 on Wednesday; the second was Marketing Week's annual sponsorship conference on Thursdays event. Great cast list across the two events, and plenty of inside information e.g. people at Thursday's event knew in advance that ING was set to make a dramatic announcement. Details of the two events can be found here:

http://www.sportsmarketing360.com/

http://www.centaurconferences.co.uk/brands/marketingweek/events/thesponsorshipsummit/overview.aspx

Across the two days, the majority of sponsors talked about the need to engage with sports fans, and to harness the power of emotion that many of these fans feel for their sports. Indeed, there seemed to be open acknowledgment that sponsors need to work hard to ensure that they are not viewed as cynically exploiting sport, if sponsorship deals are to achieve maxiumum effectiveness. This poses the question therefore: how will sponsorship need to change, especially in the post-downturn world? If one thinks of the emotion that e.g. a football fan feels for their club, how can a sponsor (can a sponsor) replicate this? Harness it? Buy into it? Capture it? What is the most appropriate phraseology? Can it ever work? Won't fans always be cynical of sponsorship exploitation? As Marx might have put it: the appropriation of value (generated by a team, club or sport)? And what might movements such Against Modern Football (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=9943026245) think about the role that sponsors are playing in 21st century sport? Yet surely sponsors have got a role to play in supporting sport, especially during these difficult times? And if they can help to induce, support and perpetuate the emotions associated with our favourite sports, this must be a good thing - mustn't it? Ultimately, if teams, clubs, sponsors and the fans all win from engaging in a mutually-benefical relationship, this has to be the way foward - hasn't it?