Sebastian Vettel with the Aston Martin AMR22 during the F1 Grand Prix of the Netherlands at Circuit … [+]
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It’s more than just putting a logo on a racecar as an advertisement for Cognizant, the internationally known IT services and consulting firm.
The New Jersey-based brand, which gained a reputation for modernizing other companies, took its own leap in doing exactly that last year. The firm joined Aston Martin to serve as its title sponsor when Lawrence Stroll brought the English OEM back into Formula 1 for the first time in 61 years.
“The ultimate goal is to make that car go faster,” Gaurav Chand, chief marketing officer of Cognizant, said. “The biggest reason for us to invest is because racing is a sport that is so historically conductive to technology. We’re doing it now with the Aston Martin F1 Team by delivering services across 12 different powers.
“We wanted to make sure we were with a team that has a set of loyal followers. Aston Martin is an incredible brand name. We’re going above and beyond to talk about how this is not just a sponsorship. This is absolutely and definitely a partnership.”
To sign a multi-million dollar Formula 1 deal is a true sign of how serious Cognizant is about expanding its overseas market. The multi-year deal provided Aston Martin with a sense of comfortability and it enables Cognizant to grow its marketing strategy around the team.
When Chand joined Cognizant, it was obvious that the firm needed to build global awareness to expand outside of America. Additionally, Cognizant was known as an offshore player, and Chand wanted to elaborate on the brand’s digital transformation depth.
“It was not just creating awareness, but it was also shifiting perception,” Chand said. “We were looking at various ways to do it. We looked at 40 different properties across sports itself. There were very few that hit both buckets. Formula 1 hit both buckets naturally because it’s an incredibly popular sport with 22-24 sports across the globe in our priority countries.
“It had the ability to create global awareness with the logo on the car. But it also had the ability to shift perception because of the hospitality at the races, where we could invite clients and talk to them about how we are at the intersection of technology and racing.”
With Sebastian Vettel and Lance Stroll behind the wheel of the team’s two racecars, the team is building for the future. Vettel is retiring at season’s end, and veteran Fernando Alonso will take over that seat in 2023.
Chand gave an example of attending a Formula 1 event in Amsterdam. Dutch clients, he said, revealed they didn’t know about Cognizant before the brand entered Formula 1. Now, they know what Cognizant does.
In 2019, 30% of Cognizant’s portfolio was digital. Now, Cognizant is closer to 50% digital and Formula 1 is responsible for changing the firm’s perception.
“One and a half years into this partnership, we’ve seen a massive lift on the awareness front, as well as picking up digital engagement work with our clients,” Chand said.
A key part of the partnership is assisting Aston Martin with its data analysis, something Cognizant hopes will continue for years to come.
“We work with them on data sciences, and a huge piece of this sport is understanding the aerodynamics,” Chand said. “You don’t get to drive the cars on a regular basis, so you have to do things in a simulator, which generates a ton of data. We’re a team that takes a lot of that data and collects it into insight for the engineers and drivers.”
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https://formulaone.news/aston-martin/mercedes-should-have-listened-to-russell-at-suzuka
