Formula 1: Drive to Survive, a documentary series co-produced by Netflix and Formula One, provides viewers with an exclusive behind-the-scenes glimpse into the drivers and races of the Formula One World Championship. Notably, Cognizant plays a significant role in this series as the title sponsor for the Aston Martin F1 Team. The collaboration among Netflix, Formula One, and Cognizant offers viewers a unique insight into the inner workings of the Aston Martin F1 Team, showcasing its journey, challenges, and triumphs throughout the racing season.
The partnership between Cognizant and the Aston Martin F1 Team, highlighted in Formula 1: Drive to Survive, provides valuable marketing opportunities by offering brand visibility, engaging diverse audiences, enhancing credibility, and facilitating effective storytelling. As the title sponsor, Cognizant gains exposure to a global audience of Formula One enthusiasts and sports fans, reinforcing its commitment to excellence and innovation.
Gaurav Chand, Cognizant’s global chief marketing officer, recently talked about the company’s marketing strategies with Storyboard18’s editor, Delshad Irani. They discussed how technology is reshaping brand experiences, especially in the post-COVID era. He stated, “Among the services that we sell, we predominantly work with G2000 accounts across the globe. One of the things with the G2000 accounts is, if you look at the C-level, there’s a limited number of C-level across those accounts. So if I take approximately 10 personas per company in 2,000 companies, we get that 20,000 personas that I’m interested in and I’m trying to influence, right from CEOs to Chief Revenue Officers to line of Business Leaders to CIO, etc. Hence, one of the places where we focus heavily is this notion of account-based marketing and Persona-based marketing. Now, imagine, I have a Persona that I’m going to target. Question is, can I learn something about that Persona from the perspective of his or her likes or dislikes, interests and all of that kind of stuff?”
He also gave an example for this case. A few years ago, when Cognizant entered a partnership with Formula 1, the sport wasn’t as popular in the United States, and the Netflix series “Drive to Survive” was just starting. Cognizant targeted a business owner in Dallas, Texas, as a potential client. Through social intelligence, they discovered the person’s interest in racing and invited them to the F1 race in Austin. This digital-to-physical approach, reaching out to an acquisition account, proved successful. The person, initially not an F1 fan, thoroughly enjoyed the experience, became a devoted Aston Martin Team follower, and is now a significant customer of Cognizant. This example illustrates how leveraging digital insights for personalized physical experiences can create lasting impressions and business success.
The partnership with Aston Martin started after Cognizant carefully considered various sports and settled on Formula 1 for its global appeal and tech relevance. Cognizant’s tech expertise helps Aston Martin perform better both on and off the track. He said, “When I joined Cognizant, which is around a little over four years ago, we’d never done any major sports sponsorships or any elements like that. One of the ways to get a strong message across is through sports. It can be an incredibly viable engine to do so. But then you have to go into the first part of the conversation, which is which sports are truly conducive to technology and where can technology make a very obvious difference in that sport. And we looked at—I remember this, I remember this distinctly—we looked at 40 different sports, tennis and marathons included. We looked at 40 different types of sports, and, looking at the global nature,of Formula 1 and the tech conduciveness of motor sports, We locked on Formula 1. Then came the decision of do you want to partner with the team or do you partner with the governing body? And all we went through our trials and tribulations of all of that, and we landed in the end on Aston Martin, which has been an incredible journey for us and the team themselves. But the tech conduciveness part is probably one of the most critical because you get to tell the story of why did you pick this specific team, this specific sport. So you have IoT sensors, they are sending information in real-time back to the garage and to head office in Silverstone. Garage and head office are talking together; they’re talking to the driver, and that nexus forms the decision that the driver makes on when to come in for a pit stop.”
Chand also talked about how they measure the success of partnerships, focusing on things like website traffic, social media feedback, and revenue impact. This approach ensures that their efforts align with business goals. He stated that in their weekly routine, they receive a comprehensive Excel sheet comprising 56 row items gauging diverse indicators, ranging from website traffic to social sentiment. They diligently track various metrics, including the efficacy of press releases, views, and engagements. Regardless of the campaign type, whether it involves Formula 1 or social media initiatives, they strive for consistency and predictability in measurement. Their focus lies on identifying a single pivotal metric for B2B enterprises: ‘marketing influence pipeline’ and ‘marketing influence revenue’, evaluated 9 months prior and post-campaign launch. This method allows them to assess revenue and margins effectively, particularly in hospitality contexts like Formula 1, facilitating more insightful discussions with clients about value-added services and digital transformation. Ultimately, their evaluation framework revolves around the concept of marketing influence pipeline and revenue.
In addition, Chand emphasized the importance of corporate responsibility, highlighting the need for ‘good growth’ that considers sustainability and social impact. Cognizant is committed to making Formula 1 more sustainable, showing how businesses can contribute to positive change. He talked about how sustainability stands as a crucial aspect in the pursuit of ‘good growth’, which emphasizes achieving growth with the right elements like inclusion and climate consciousness. It’s recognized that growth cannot come at any cost. Rather, it must be balanced with sustainability principles. He added, “ In fact, our CEO Ravi Kumar, he did a fascinating panel at the World Economic Forum in Davos, and the entire panel was focused on this notion of good growth and how corporations and governments should work hand in hand from a regulation standpoint, from a compliance standpoint, and all of those elements to ensure that everybody is looking at good growth as opposed to growing just for the sake of growing. It’s a fascinating conversation. At some point in time, the stock markets are also going to come. Today, they’re not there. Stock markets are still after profitability, revenue growth, those elements, and I think they will catch up. But it is fascinating. I think marketing plays a huge role in communicating that. And I’ll give you a really, really simple example. Three years ago, F1 was considered, “Oh, F1 is a very non-sustainable sport, and it’s not a great sport or anything to that effect,” and it always had this dark cloud over it. The amount of tires you use, the petrol you use,people traveling the world with all of that equipment, all over. What’s fascinating is there are now strict mandates for every team in F1 around both sustainable fuels and carbon neutrality. We are helping the Aston Martin team achieve the goal of carbon neutrality by 2030. So that’s just one example in an area that’s always had a dark cloud around it, and the reason we do that is because we genuinely believe it’s a great thing for the world, but it’s important for us as a company too to partake in making this world a better place.”