Technology and running may not seem an obvious partnership – so the sponsorship of the London Marathon by global tech leader Tata Consultancy Services is perhaps surprising.
But tech innovation is playing a key role in breaking new ground in athletic performance – and even in how runners and spectators participate in large-scale events. The TCS marathon app offers a range of features, including tracking features, real-time maps, training tips, and the ability to send messages of support on race day. For TCS, the London Marathon’s wide reach makes it the ideal environment to build brand awareness, position them as forward-thinking leaders in the technology sector, and give back to the communities where their employees live and work.
For 2024, the main objective of TCS’s sponsorship was to highlight its artificial intelligence-powered ‘digital twin’ technology, which uses data to create virtual representations of a physical entity or system. An exhibition stand at the TCS London Marathon’s National Running Show offered the perfect opportunity to showcase the potential of digital twins.
Attendees interacted with holographic runners, lifelike digital replicas, and touchscreens exploring digital twin technology, discovering how it could enhance performance and improve health and wellness. There was also the chance for visitors to co-create and share ‘real world’ digital twins of themselves via social channels.
The 2024 Expo has become an exemplary tech activation for TCS’s sponsorship portfolio of 14 endurance running races, creating a huge amount of social noise with over 44,000 engagements, and effectively delivering against TCS’s key sponsorship objectives.
