The Hindu Business Line : Building bonds, brands

Anand Mahindra, Vice-Chairman and MD, Mahindra & Mahindra, and actor Vidya Balan running the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon 2009 held in Mumbai in January.

Sudha Menon

For car manufacturer Skoda Auto India, the marathon represents an ideal vehicle to convey a social message. “While cricket is the national sport and the impact of associating with it cannot be compared to anything else, the fact remains that i t is also a hugely expensive affair. Partnering with the marathon gives real-time access to a wider audience at a much lower cost and is a great opportunity for companies with a smaller budget, given its health associations and the charity angle,” says Ashutosh Dixit, Senior General Manager, Skoda Auto.

At the Delhi marathon, a large team, including Dixit himself, Skoda staff and dealers promoted causes such as observing traffic rules, driving manners, sticking to speed limits and no honking. “In addition to it being a great internal team-building tool, the marathon has also helped us with fulfilling our corporate social responsibility,” says Dixit

“In a cluttered marketplace, emotional equity is the key differentiator and nothing, not even cricket, can come close to it. In cricket, as in other sports, we are all spectators and that brings a certain level of involvement, but in the marathon, we are the players. At the end of the run you have not just one participant winning, but each person who crosses the finish line in his or her target time is a winner.”

A reason why prominent international brands such as Airtel, TCS and Standard Chartered Bank bet big on marathons. Fittingly, Airtel has not shied away from spending big bucks on marketing the Delhi event in a huge manner. A new TV commercial focused on the marathon with Shah Rukh Khan ran across the country and led the print and outdoor blitz.

The nine Standard Chartered marathons span four continents. For the bank they characterise the values and attitude that Standard Chartered wants to be associated with - a ‘can-do’ attitude, a priority on strength of trust, willpower, stamina, and a determination to go the distance. The bank also utilises the platform to support its community programmes. Blind athlete Henry Wanyoike and his running partner, Joseph Kibunja, take part in the Stanchart marathons, speaking to thousands of people on the importance of having the courage and the right partner to pursue their dreams. They have also helped raise awareness and millions of dollars for their global community programme ‘Seeing is Believing’.

Apart from utilising its association with sports to grow its business portfolio, for India’s largest software services company TCS, running is a serious HR initiative and a preoccupation with everyone, including vice-chairman S. Ramadorai and other seniors such as CEO N. Chandrasekaran who have run the Mumbai marathon in the last few years.

Possibly one of Mumbai’s biggest employers in the private sector, TCS has an employee force whose average age is 24-25, which is why its association with running is a perfect way to get across the message of fitness, says Jayant Pendharkar, Vice-President (Global Marketing). “While cricket is our national passion, the marathon represents endurance, stamina and mental toughness. By encouraging them to participate in the marathon we want to foster physical and mental toughness in our young team because those are prerequisites for our industry,” he says.

At TCS’ offices, preparations for the event begin well ahead of the games with marathon clinics and training. A week before D-day, the employee canteen menu changes to a diet designed to build stamina. For the employees the takeaway is not just participation in the event. Last year, the company invited the winners of the marathon to its offices for an interactive session with its staff. “Meeting with world-class athletes is hugely inspiring,” says Pendharkar.

Hindustan Unilever Ltd, Mahindra & Mahindra and the Aditya Birla Group are other major corporates which have utilised the marathon to support their HR initiatives. Additional revenue for the city, spreading the message of communal harmony and charity are other valuable attributes of marathons that each corporate wants to cash in on.

“The marathons are the largest charity-generating platforms in the country. Even better is that they are ‘cause-agnostic’, supporting several different NGOs and charities. The marathons have proven themselves to be a charity magnet with Mumbai alone having raised over Rs 35 crore, across a 100 different causes so far,” says Procam’s Singh.

Almost all the sponsors and partners associated with marathons are reluctant to share figures invested in the sport. Singh says the Stanchart marathon was able to deliver a positive RoI from the first year onwards. “The sheer impact that the event made in the community, the large-scale participation and the sheer audacity of the event - in taking over the heart of Mumbai for over six hours - itself generated tremendous media hype and interest.”

While Pendharkar refuses to comment on TCS’ investment in this event, he says the return on investment is in the form of great team building, employee motivation and the pride that comes from being part of it.

For TCS the association with sport can also translate into good business. The company’s campuses have facilities for tennis, squash, swimming and a gym. “Sport is not just a stress-buster, it can be a great business tool. Our employees who go abroad can enjoy a sport and build great business relationships with customers when they play a game of tennis with them. Enduring friendships can often come out of a shared passion for a game,” he says.

A glance at the national long-distance calendar shows multiple races, indicating a huge rise in this passion for running, spread across the metros, Tier I and even Tier II cities. The country’s populace has clearly taken to running and the multiple benefits of association have ensured that the corporate world keeps pace with this new-found and contemporary target audience.

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