Up and running: Marathon business picks up steam after Covid hurdle

Organisers prepare for 40,000-plus participants at this year's Delhi half marathon, which will kick off on October 16

As the national capital gears up for the 17th edition of the Delhi half marathon on October 16, it couldn’t have asked for a better advert than Avinash Sable’s historic feat at the Commonwealth Games earlier this year.

The marathoner, who won silver for India at the 3,000-metre steeplechase in Birmingham, was the toast of the town when the resumption of the event, after a no-show due to Covid-19 last year, was recently announced with a new title sponsor in mining giant Vedanta.

Who better than Sable to inspire Indians to run? After all, it was in Delhi that the 28-year-old became the first Indian to complete a half marathon in under 61 minutes in 2020.

If Sable’s story became a rallying cry for aspiring runners to look at a Delhi marathon as a stepping stone to athletic glory Indians could scarcely dream of until now, fellow Commonwealth medallist and champion boxer Nikhat Zareen conveyed how the open-to-all event can offer low-hanging fruit to every participant. She simply urged everyone to “run for fitness”.

With the increased focus on health and fitness after the outbreak of the pandemic, marathons are only set to get bigger with loads of prize money at stake, besides a growing space for brand presence, sponsorships, and corporate and individual philanthropy.

Vivek Singh, joint managing director of Procam International, the company that organises marathons in Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Kolkata, says that the running ecosystem in India is worth $400 million (Rs 3,193 crore) annually. Procam is a pioneer among sporting event management firms as it started the movement with the Mumbai Marathon, then sponsored by Standard Chartered, in 2004. It is now the race that carries the highest prize money in the country at $500,000 (approximately Rs 4 crore). The Vedanta Delhi Half Marathon will have prize money of $268,000 (Rs 2.14 crore) and the organisers have outlined arrangements for 40,000-plus participants this year. In 2020, over 13,500 runners had participated in the event.

Singh says there are now over 1,579 timed running events in India annually, which is “amazing for a country that didn’t run”. With the involvement of the biggest corporate houses and the world’s best runners, this participative sport has become the fastest growing discipline in a country that traditionally loved spectator sports, he adds.

“People’s consciousness of health, fitness and empathy towards causes have increased,” says Singh, adding that Procam, which has raised over Rs 200 crore for various charities, had begun the running journey in the country with five pillars — health, fitness, pride to the state, social harmony, and benefitting the Indian economy. “Every seed that we planted has now grown into a mighty oak, and running is really a movement today,” he says.

While cricket and the Indian Premier League (brand value of $4.5 billion) have by far the most expensive sporting ecosystems in the country, running follows India’s most popular sport in terms of investments. According to Procam estimates, it fetches approximately Rs 800 crore a year in India, ahead of the likes of kabaddi (Rs 300 crore) and Indian Super League (Rs 400 crore). Besides, the top line of each running event averages around Rs 50 lakh and goes up to several crores, it says, adding that brands are also able to find good returns on investment with a six month-plus engagement period with participants that includes registration, training, running groups, and the final events.

The presence of brands and industry leaders who are avid runners has been an integral part of marathons in India. Vedanta, for example, plans to invest between Rs 100 crore and Rs 150 crore in the next five years in the Delhi half marathon.

N Chandramouli, chief executive officer of brand intelligence and advisory firm TRA Research, points out that corporate involvement in sports isn’t new, but because of the localised nature of the events, marathons used to initially attract local sponsorships. After growing steadily, sponsorships took off in 2008 when Tata Sons Chairman N Chandrasekaran participated in the Mumbai marathon, he observes. Tata Consultancy Services, which is a partner of the Mumbai event, boasts sponsorships of marathons across the globe including in New York, London, and Amsterdam.

Tech companies have an upper hand in sponsorship partnerships, although companies from other sectors like Vedanta are coming in, says Chandramouli. “The logic behind sponsorships for brands is that of course there is a natural association of fitness here, but the marathon is also youth-oriented although the runners aren’t all youths. So, in a larger sense the target audience is youth. And it makes sense for an IT company because the employees lead very sedentary lives, for instance.”

Secondly, there is a marketing aspect. Over time, marathon viewership has risen globally. “The collective eyeball for TCS branding in London or Mumbai marathons would be about a billion people. Also, there is much news around it when the honchos run, so they get good coverage,” he says.

Marathons yield a lot of adjunct branding for title sponsors. According to Chandramouli, several other sports may be losing sheen because of costs. However, a marathon is an intense, one-time activity that can brave rain or sun — or air pollution, a challenge faced in Delhi — and offers a simplistic option to sponsor, he adds.

For the average runner, a winners-all positivity that is unique to marathons is a big draw.

Aniket Mishra, who works with FIFA and is based in Delhi, used to run regularly and play cricket. After a gap of nearly a decade, he started running actively again in March 2020 just as the pandemic set in.

A year ago in Chandigarh, he ran his first race with a crowd from all walks of life. “I was already running 18-19 km, so I attempted 21 km. It was a fantastic experience to run alongside 9- to 80-year-olds, all motivated to reach the finish line at the picturesque Morni Hills,” he says.

Although he rubs shoulders with international footballers as part of his job, he confesses that he connected more with people who did not have to stay fit but chose to.

That’s the spirit that organisers and sponsors of marathons are looking to cash in on.