Cognizant eyes Indian sports leagues after debut sponsorship in US Major League Cricket

Cognizant is looking at sports leagues in India for sponsorship.

US tech major Cognizant is eying the India market, not just for the software business, but for sponsorship in Indian sports leagues as the company sees strong returns from them.

It was last month when the software exporter came on board as the title sponsor of Major League Cricket (MLC), a T20 league in the US. The company is now exploring options in India, said a top official of the company.

"India is one of the most important countries for Cognizant. We are a 350,000-strong company and more than 250,000 associates are in India. So, it is a critical country for us. We are constantly evaluating sponsorships. There are a few that have come by but we have not yet made a decision. We are constantly looking and hopefully we will do something in India soon," said Gaurav Chand, chief marketing officer (CMO) of Cognizant.

But, one might wonder what an IT giant has to do with sports leagues? A lot, said Chand.

"A brand gets a massive lift from an awareness angle which ultimately feeds into recognition and consideration and that is what leads to clients investing in working with us. Then the experiential opportunity of meeting with the clients, talking to them about signing up accounts and if they are existing customers then talking to them to retain the accounts. So, we measure the impacted revenue and margins for all of those accounts. The reason we do these sports sponsorships is because the ROI (return on investment) has been incredibly good over the last four years," he said.

Cognizant’s sports sponsorship portfolio spans across the PGA (Professional Golfers' Association of America), LPGA (Ladies Professional Golf Association), Aston Martin Formula 1 (AMF1) team, SailGP (international sailing competition), and the English Football Association.

It has now extended its sports sponsorship to cricket with the game getting big in the US and in many other markets across the globe.

"Look at what is happening in cricket in the US. We are making a bet that cricket is going to explode. You had the T20 World Cup, there was MLC Season 1 last year, then at the Olympics in Los Angeles (in 2028) cricket is coming back after over a century. If you look at our clients several of them are from strong cricketing heritage like India, Australia, England. So, we thought that given where the sport is going and given the parallels between cricket and technology as data is key in a sport like this, it would be a fantastic sport for us to get on with," Cognizant's chief marketing officer said.

The company spends less than 20 percent of its total marketing budget on sports sponsorships. "Sponsorship is one element. There is also activation. So, we don't want to overspend on sponsorship. We want to make sure we have enough money for the activation of the sponsorship. This year, the sponsorship spend is about the same because we made some flips in our sponsorship, changed our strategy. We signed the title sponsorship of the Classic PGA 2 tournament (a professional golf tournament) and we will stop doing the Presidents Cup (a series of men's golf matches) which was PGA 2. So, we made some changes and balanced out our portfolio," Chand said.

The Major League Cricket which started in July 2023 is gearing up for its next season from the same month this year and is close to its targets in terms of sponsorships for season 2. "Cognizant gives us a lot of credibility and their sponsorship portfolio," said Justin Gealve, tournament director of Major League Cricket.

Gealve also expects the league to cover itself this year and thinks there is a path to profitability in the next two to three years. "The big return will come as the league grows," he said.

A few of the existing Indian Premier League (IPL) franchises have invested in teams in MLC, including the Knight Riders Group which is co-owned by actor Shah Rukh Khan and Chennai Super Kings.

"The established franchises have given us connection to the Asian markets. We saw many people last year coming for the team because of the strong brand associations. We want to scale up and look at two team expansions in two years time. But infrastructure is a challenge, building stadiums is expensive as each stadium costs $20-25 million each which is significant," Gealve said.