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If you’ve ever run or attended a marathon, odds are you’ve seen the letters “TCS.”

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), a B2B tech services company, currently has 14 active marathon partnerships, including sponsorships with five of the seven World Marathon Majors, according to Global Chief Marketing Officer Abhinav Kumar.

Outside of its presence in running, though, TCS is scarce in sports.

“Once we discovered the magic of marathons, we [made] a decision about 15 years ago that we shut down everything else,” Kumar told Marketing Brew. Now, the company’s entire sports marketing portfolio, with the exception of a title sponsorship of the Jaguar Formula E team, is centered on running.

TCS started sponsoring marathons a couple of years after its 2004 IPO, with the goal of raising its brand profile, Kumar said. Since then, the brand has found that focusing on the running world helps the company connect more deeply with its customers and employees, many of whom are runners themselves.

Every runner remembers their first marathon, and some sponsors do, too. TCS’s was the Mumbai Marathon in 2008, now called the Tata Mumbai Marathon, which was part of a 10-year deal inked in 2017. Before that naming rights deal, the Amsterdam Marathon became the brand’s first title sponsorship of a race in 2010, Kumar said.

Before the push into marathons, TCS was active in sports like 

, cycling, and cricket, which brought with them their own set of benefits. F1 in particular allowed TCS employees to give clients access to race-day experiences, like meet and greets with drivers, Kumar said.

But after Mumbai, Amsterdam, and a partnership with New York Road Runners, the organization behind the New York City Marathon, TCS quite literally hit the ground running.

“As we started discovering the sport, I think we had a light-bulb moment,” he said. “Unlike many of the other sports where you have a fantastic spectator and hospitality experience, the difference here is that our customers, partners, and colleagues who participate in this sport are actually the athletes.”

Across the 14 marathons TCS sponsors each year, about 8,000 employees and 4,000 customers participate, according to Kumar. Of the company’s 607,000 employees, one-third of them are runners in some capacity, he added. The sport doesn’t just offer a point of connection for the brand and its stakeholders, but offers a chance to form deeper ties.

“Everyone has their unique reasons to do it, but their emotional involvement with this is just phenomenal,” Kumar said. “And look, in the sector we are in, in B2B technology services, usually it’s not a sector that you get emotional or excited about.”

In addition to title sponsorships, TCS aims to show up at its marathons with activations that support its staff and clients, as well as the rest of the runners. At the New York City Marathon, for instance, the company sets up hospitality tents at the start and finish lines with amenities like food, drinks, and stretching services for TCS runners. TCS also books out Tavern on the Green in Central Park, where runners’ families can wait for them to finish, and where runners can enjoy massages when they’ve completed their 26.2 miles, Kumar said.

Non-TCS runners will encounter the company’s branding along the route, as well as on shirts and other race merchandise. And to reach beyond its stakeholder base, TCS also showcases its tech at marathons with services like virtual course maps and mobile apps with features like runner tracking and predicted finish times. In 2023, TCS debuted the Future Athlete Program, partnering with Boston Marathon champion and two-time Olympian Des Linden to create and analyze a digital replica of her heart.

While TCS strives to help the runners, marathons help TCS brand in turn: A 

 from the company found that its brand consideration among nonrunners is 27%, but among marathoners, that number jumps to 67%. For some of the bigger races broadcast around the world, TCS sees between $10 million and $20 million in equivalent media value, Kumar added.

It’s a symbiotic relationship with the broader running ecosystem as well, which doesn’t tend to see as much sponsorship interest as some other major sports despite the increasing number of marathons around the world, he said.

“I think that will change with time,” Kumar said. “While it may be undernourished from [a sponsorship] point of view…running as a sport is exploding, so we’ll see more and more on this front.”

This piece has been updated to remove an incorrect figure about TCS's total number of endurance running sponsorship deals.

runners racing at the TCS London Marathon 2025 

Why one company went all in on marathons

TCS sponsors five of the seven World Marathon Majors, plus dozens of other running events.

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Federal privacy laws audio embed

For advertisers, privacy is stuck in purgatory—at least on the federal side.

, is no longer leading the Federal Trade Commission. And even though some federal privacy legislation has made its way through Congress, legislators on the Hill have yet to pass any such bill.

What’s an advertiser to do? At Marketing Brew’s Tactical MarTech event last month, a trio of privacy advocates told us to continue looking at the states, where the patchwork quilt of privacy legislation continues to grow ever more complex in the absence of any significant movement on the federal side.

“You have a lot of states that are trying to assert dominance,” Richy Glassberg, co-founder and CEO of SafeGuard Privacy, said during a panel discussion.

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Since 2018, at least 19 states from California to Delaware have passed comprehensive privacy legislation, according to the IAPP’s 

. Last year, at least six states signed privacy bills into law. At least a dozen states are considering privacy legislation, including Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and Illinois.

Though much of the draft legislation contains similarities, they all have their own peculiarities, meaning there are plenty of state-specific details that might not cross state lines. One of the newer laws is the Maryland Online Data Privacy Act, which is slated to go into effect in October. It’s considered to be one of the 

 in the country because of its emphasis on data minimization, which requires that companies only collect data that is “reasonably necessary and proportionate to provide or maintain a specific product or service,” instead of sucking up 

 More specifically, the law will require companies to only collect data to “provide or maintain a specific product or service requested by the consumer.”

Rowena Lam, senior director of privacy and data at the IAB Tech Lab, said that the requirement will pose some challenges for advertisers.

“That is the piece that’s different from other state laws that kind of has us scratching our heads a little bit…Are [customers] ever requesting that you show them ads?” Lam said.

MKB IRL Clip-A higher bar in Marlyland? video embed

Other privacy laws aim to curb the collection of health-related data, which took on 

 (MHMD), which aimed to fill the gaps left by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), a federal law that protects data collected by “covered entities” like doctors and dentists, but not by search engines or mobile apps.

There are still questions about how MHMD may affect marketers, since advertisers can be in the habit of making inferences about consumer behavior based on available consumer data, Lam said.

“It’s really murky as to what can be considered an inference of sensitive health information, according to Washington’s My Health, My Data Act,” she said. “If a consumer is shopping for a running shoe, can I make the leap to say that maybe they’re trying to lose weight? That’s all very unclear today.”

What is an Inference? video embed

 the New York Health Information Privacy Act. Though not a clone of MHMD, the bill has a broad definition of “health information,” including “any information that is reasonably linkable to an individual, or a device, and is collected or processed in connection with the physical or mental health of an individual,” as well as inferences or assumptions made about consumers.

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As states continue to pass their own laws, federal efforts have stalled out. It’s unclear what will happen to the FTC’s attempts to 

 sensitive health data or how much of a priority consumer data will ultimately be under the Trump administration.

to pass either the Kids Online Safety Act or an update to the Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act, both of which aim to curb how advertisers and tech companies interact with minors.

Maybe all hope is not lost? In January, Sen. Ron Wyden 

 privacy an “urgent” bipartisan issue while attending the IAB’s Annual Leadership Meeting, tying the lack of legislation to national security concerns.

“We want to protect people’s healthcare data, people’s education data and people’s job data,” he said at the time.

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Have you seen this old saying? Even if it’s not top of mind, there’s a good chance you’ve crossed paths with it, especially since you’re the type to be interested in a white paper dedicated to digging deep into marketing strategy 😉.

If you’re anything like us, it’s safe to say you need a refresher. What McLuhan (the grandfather of modern communication theory, btw) meant by “the medium is the message” is that the medium through which a message is communicated holds as much, if not more, value as the message itself. Kind of confusing on its surface, but it’s actually pretty simple. Think of it this way: In an SMS, the medium is the channel itself (SMS). The message is the content of the transmission—a text, photo, video, etc.

The medium (SMS) influences how the message (the text) is received and perceived by the audience. Obvious stuff for any marketer, really—this idea is ingrained so thoroughly in our strategies that it’s become a cliché. From social media platforms to enterprise-level channels, the medium reigns supreme today—and perhaps for good reason. In fact, according to Customer.io’s 

, 54% of brands plan to explore new messaging channels in 2024, with 63% of these same brands achieving better performance with a multichannel approach vs. single-channel.

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So, yeah, there’s a great reason why so much of marketing strategy takes inspiration from the channel, or as McLuhan put it, the medium.

But what if thinking deep about mediums is only half the puzzle? What if the message is actually the medium? We’re not just playing with word order here. Think about it: Marketers spend so much time and energy cooking up auspicious channel strategies that deep thought surrounding the message itself sometimes gets tossed to the back burner. But a top-notch 

 messaging strategy (yes, your messaging 

 needs to connect with your audience these days—more on this below) gives you a concrete blueprint for ongoing engagement and invites customers to make themselves at home with your brand. In short, the message is everything.

We teamed up with Customer.io, leading innovator in the customer engagement game, to give you everything you need to know about the message. How exactly can personalized messaging create customer journeys that engage and convert? How can brands create meaningful messaging that genuinely resonates with their audience? What does personalized messaging actually look like? And, of course: What’s the deal with the medium? Which channels are best?

First things first: When we talk about personalized marketing, we’re talking about the practice of delivering uber-relevant, highly targeted content to your customers that keeps ’em coming back for more. How does it work? Marketers use an assortment of segmentation tools to comb through customer data and build out super-relevant customer profiles that can then be used to personalize messaging. (And just a li’l sidenote: With Customer.io, the segmentation tool is part of the platform.)

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Y’know when you receive messages from your favorite brands that feel tailored just to you, when it seems like the brand is actually your best friend who knows your favorite styles, sizing, and shopping habits? Well, that’s personalized marketing, and it’s arguably the No. 1 key to creating successful campaigns. In fact, according to a 

, 80% of people say they’re more likely to buy from companies that provide personalized experiences. That’s a huge number.


While personalization can mean lots of things within different facets of marketing, here are some classic, tried-and-true examples:

customers receive after signing up for an app, newsletter, or service

 based on browsing history, interests, and demographics

deliver exclusive offers via text messages to customers

 that offer goodies like birthday discounts and access to private sales

that gives your customers personalized quizzes, assessments, or gamified content that provides tailored results

Above all, personalization is about getting real with your customers.

The answer is a resounding, unequivocal “yes.” Personalized marketing not only drives the numbers, but it’s also what every brand is doing these days to stay at the forefront of consumers’ hearts and minds.

In fact, 81% of brands say personalization is important in their messaging strategies, and a whopping 75% of brands cite personalization as effective for improving email engagement, according to 

. That’s why it’s imperative to build a concrete, successful personalization strategy for your brand.

We’ve reached the million-dollar question, and the answer lies in messaging. Here’s the No. 1 rule: If you send your audience messages that are highly tailored to their needs, preferences, and desires, you will crush the numbers. But you need to know how to do it well. Customers are bombarded with messages, and most go ignored. To cut through the noise, you need to understand the nuts and bolts of personalized messaging. Let’s dive in.

An illustration of a mobile smart phone showing chat bubbles cascading off the screen in a surreal/conceptual manner.

First, collect and analyze your data with a top-notch CDP.

Effective personalization quite literally hinges on customer data. You can’t tailor messages to your audience without knowing them, after all. Before you get started crushing the personalization game, you gotta gather your customer data and give it a good once-over. Easier said than done, sure. But the first step is choosing a strong Customer Data Platform (CDP) to optimize customer data management and analysis.

What’s a CDP? A CDP is a kind of software that gathers customer data from every touchpoint to create a single view of the customer. That’s right: The right CDP gives you accurate, unified data about your customers that can be harnessed for personalization. You’ve probably heard the modern cliché, “Data is the new oil.” In the world of personalized messaging, it couldn’t be more true.

 that makes it super easy to connect your data sources to the destinations where you activate your data—so you don’t have to spend precious time and resources maintaining your own integrations.

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But here’s the catch: you gotta pick a 

CDP. Keep your eyes peeled for platforms that:

with other tools and systems in your martech stack.

 across a wide variety of platforms and devices.

60% of brands cite data-quality issues as a challenge in using customer data for personalization. That’s why selecting the right CDP for your biz can give you a serious edge in the competition.

Once you’ve got your data game down, it’s time to create.

And by create, we mean create relevant, tailored content based on your segmentation and data-profiling results. Why’s this step so important? Targeted, personalized messaging not only engages customers on high levels but also elevates the entire customer journey—i.e., the process that customers travel through when engaging with your brand from discovery to purchase.

When creating wow-worthy content, consider these three key points (the three R’s, if you will) identified by Customer.io in their 

 Catching customers at the perfect moment is key. Whether you’re celebrating milestone achievements or sending a reminder about an abandoned cart, an overdue invoice, a reward waiting to be claimed, or a course that needs to be completed, real-time personalization ensures your brand is top of mind when it 

Remember: Relevance is powered by accurate data. Use your customer data to create content that establishes meaningful relationships with your audience. For example, consider an in-app loyalty program that rewards customers based on spending history. You can use dynamic content like real-time progress charts and congratulatory messages to build loyalty and increase engagement.

We’re going to spill the deets on this in the next section, but selecting the right channel for your messaging is crucial to hooking your audience. Your data can tell you where the message belongs, whether it’s email, SMS, social media, in-app messages, push notifications, etc.

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Let’s take a look at the best personalization tactics that brands are using to boost ROI and drive engagement. Peep these numbers:

An adult sitting at a computer desk doing digital work. Illustration.

When it comes to acing the channel game, there is one golden rule: Multi-channel > single-channel. In other words, your brand should take advantage of more than one channel in your messaging strategies to boost the numbers. According to 

, brands that used three channels produced 244% better conversion rates than brands using single-channel approaches. HUGE numbers. So, which channels are the best? Good question—let’s take a look at the top three.

Ahh, ol’ reliable. Email is always a top channel, and brands show no sign of slowing down when it comes to lighting up inboxes. In fact, November 2023 saw an all-time high in the number of emails sent using Customer.io’s Journeys solution. Wanna know the number? 3B🤯. Huge stuff. Not to mention there’s a 26% increase in email volume, with 2.7x more emails sent by SaaS companies than other industries. SaaS and email just get along.

We all know that the smartphone rules all these days. Everybody is on their phone, and brands entered the chat some time ago. SMS usage has surged by 47% year over year, with the fintech industry leading the way in leveraging this channel. Brands that do not have an app to leverage push notifications or in-app messaging can use SMS to engage their customers in meaningful ways and build strong loyalty.

Brands are all about apps—and yours should be too. No, really. 49% of brands adopted push notifications in 2023, suggesting a strong embrace of application-based channels. The industries most eager to 

? SaaS and fintech, which both use push notifications to provide users with real-time updates, personalized messaging, and loyalty perks that drive conversions and boost the numbers.

Say hi to the fastest growing channel of 2023: in-app messaging. Not only did the number of brands using in-app absolutely boom, but the quantity of sends increased by 793% throughout 2023. In-app is so popular because it allows brands to deepen and increase in-the-moment engagement; you can place the most important messages directly in front of your customers. Plus, combining push notifications with in-app messaging is an absolute game changer.

There you have it—the ins and outs of personalized messaging. It’s a tricky game, without a doubt, but you can succeed with a little know-how and a lot of determination. From choosing the perfect CDP to selecting the right channel to carry your content, messaging strategy requires careful planning, trial and error, and evaluation. But once you pin down a formula that works for your team, the numbers can skyrocket. Personalized messaging isn’t just a trend—it’s the future of effective communication.

A busy composition showing the connectedness of individuals, to their devices, to one another. Illustration.

Customer.io

Customer.io July 2024 Custom White Paper

Let’s get personal

How your brand can use personalized messaging to rewrite the rules of customer engagement

Let’s get personal 

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In partnership with YouGov, Salesforce conducted a survey on generative AI from May 18 to May 25, 2023. The survey included responses from more than 4,135 full-time employees across various departments, such as sales, service, marketing, and commerce. Out of these, 1,029 full-time marketers working in companies of different sizes and sectors from the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia participated in the survey, which was conducted online. The figures have been weighted and represent all full-time employees aged 18 and above in the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia.

By submitting this form you agree to have your contact information including email passed on to the sponsors of this asset for the purpose of following up on your interests.

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