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Tata Son’s Chairman N Chandrasekaran’s passion for running marathons continues to shape Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) engagement with global marathon events.
TCS announced on Tuesday that it will become the title partner of the London Marathon from 2022. It is a six-year partnership signed after existing sponsor Virgin Money chose not to extend its deal beyond 2021.
This is the seventh marathon title partnership globally for TCS. Chandra, who was earlier the CEO of TCS, had started partnering global marathon events as the title sponsor of the Amsterdam Marathon and smaller sponsorship deals with the races in Boston, Chicago and Berlin, as well in India.
In 2013 came the big one when TCS became the title sponsor of the New York City Marathon. TCS was already providing tech services to the London event. TCS developed the official event app that allowed participants and spectators to get the fullest London Marathon experience.
In 2020, TCS updated the app to support participants in the first virtual London Marathon during the pandemic. The IT services company plans to use digital innovation to further enhance the event experience for all future races, which will continue to be a hybrid of physical and virtual events.
This year’s ambition is for 50,000 runners to take part in the mass participation event, and a further 50,000 in the virtual event.
Brand recognition
Experts said that association with such events helps TCS in multiple ways. “TCS is a mass recruiter and usually hires straight out of college students. By sponsoring these marathon events, TCS is trying to build its reputation among current and prospective employees,” said Anuj Kapoor, Assistant Professor of Marketing at IIM-Ahmedabad. TCS is among the largest recruiters of IT talent in the UK, and is an active, long-standing contributor to UK business, the economy and society.
Harish Bijoor, a brand strategy specialist and founder, Harish Bijoor Consults Inc, said: “Events such as the London Marathon are mega events watched by many. Through sponsorship of such events, TCS gets a mega, consumer-to-consumer image. This is important because it helps in building brand recognition, which can help across all fronts such as advertising the company to potential employers.”
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