On Sunday, thousands of runners will once again take to the streets of the five boroughs for the New York City Marathon. The 51st edition of the race will be run at full capacity—50,000 runners—for the first time since 2019. And like it has every year since 2014, the NYC Marathon will carry the name of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS).
TCS, a tech and consultancy company headquartered in Mumbai, came on board in 2012 as a technology partner with NYRR. “At the time, ING was the title partner of the marathon, and that agreement was expiring,” Christine Burke, SVP of strategic partnerships and runner products of NYRR, told Sportico. “The organization went through a thorough process to evaluate potential partners, and TCS rose to the top.”
And in 2021, TCS, with a market cap of $145 billion and annual revenue of $26 billion, renewed its sponsorship deal with New York Road Runners (NYRR), the organizing company of the NYC Marathon, for eight years. It also announced last summer that it will spend as much as $320 million ($40 million a year) on marathon sponsorships for the next eight years, about the same amount Crypto.com paid per year for the naming rights of the former Staples Center in Los Angeles.
The return on that investment in endurance running has been paying off. According to a Brand Finance study, the company’s brand value has increased by $1.844 billion in 2021, a 12.5% increase over a year.
TCS first got involved with marathons in 2008 as an associate sponsor for the Mumbai Marathon. Since then, it’s added title sponsorships for the NYC Marathon and the London Marathon—two of the six World Major Marathons—along with the Amsterdam Marathon, the Toronto Waterfront Marathon and the Lidingöloppet, the world’s largest cross-country meet, held in Sweden.
But the company’s interest in running “actually started way before 2008, and it started from the top,” Michelle Taylor, the global head of sports sponsorships of TCS, told Sportico.
TCS entered the running space when CEO N. Chandrasekaran found out he had health issues. “He first started walking as per his physician’s recommendation,” Taylor said. “And that walking routine quickly transformed into a running routine.”
Seeing both physical and mental benefits of running, N. Chandra, as he is called, decided to launch a health and wellness initiative for his employees. The company set up a program called Fit for Life, a gamified health app.
The CEO expanded the conversation. “If this is doing so much for our employees, what about our clients?” Taylor said. “And that‘s really how TCS came to endurance running. They started looking at endurance running sponsorships as a way to support these activities in our communities.”
The first was the Standard Charter Mumbai marathon, which has since become the Tata Mumbai Marathon. Next was the TCS Amsterdam Marathon. “And then we started doing some smaller non-title sponsorships in Boston and Chicago. And in 2012, we started our first year as a partner with the then-ING New York City Marathon,” Taylor said. “We now have over 14 different race sponsorships all around the world in different categories, title to technology.”
TCS is part of the Tata Group which operates in 55 countries around the world. The company’s net profit rose 8.4% to $1.27 billion in the three months ending Sept. 30 from a year earlier. Revenue from operations rose 18% to $6.7 billion.
Marathon sponsorships not only enhanced TCS’ brand value, but it also allowed TCS to build relationships with C-suite executives of Fortune 500 companies. This year, over 50 such execs will run the marathon with the TCS team, including Becky Frankiewicz, chief commercial officer and president of Manpower Group. “Training for the TCS New York City Marathon is a big part of our culture at Manpower Group, and running is a perfect partner for business,” Frankiewicz told Sportico. “This year, our team has representatives from across the company and around the world.”
Despite being based in India, TCS generates the majority of its revenue from the Americas market, according to Statista, bringing in around $12 billion from the region.
The company is considering adding more races to its portfolio. TCS has been the official technology partner of both the Chicago Marathon and the Boston Marathon since 2010. While Bank of America has been the title sponsor of the Chicago Marathon since 2008, the Boston Marathon will be without a title sponsor after the 2023 race, with John Hancock ending its sponsorship.
“We look forward to a new and exciting era in Boston Marathon history as we seek to partner with our next primary sponsor,” Chris Lotsbom, the communications and media manager of the Boston Athletic Association, told Sportico. “We often say that the Boston Marathon is more than just a road race—it is a community experience that welcomes the world to Boston each and every April. Beginning in 2024 we’ll get to share this memorable experience with our next primary sponsor.”
Whoever ends up as the Boston title sponsor, TCS is in the sport for, well, the long run. “I think our love for this space is certainly clear, right?” Taylor said. “We have so much opportunity in the partnerships that we have right now. We just took over the title sponsorship of the London Marathon this year. But we also feel like there’s more opportunity that we haven’t even fully realized with our existing partnerships and platforms.”
This story has been updated to accurately reflect TCS’ market cap.
