Darren Cassidy knows Xerox is synonymous with photocopying – but that's not the story it's telling in F1

Formula One is a popular space for blue-chip legacy brands and fast-growing companies. Xerox is the former… but also the latter. And its partnership aspirations with Aston Martin Aramco are absolutely fascinating, as its CMO Darren Cassidy reveals.

One of the rare companies honoured with being both a noun and a verb, Xerox enjoys ubiquity in offices around the world as the go-to purveyor of print and photocopying hardware and consumables.

The world, however, is changing. We see it in the F1 paddock: thousands of engineers are no longer poring over 50 pages of timing data, neatly stacked and stapled by a photocopier. Today, they're looking at that data by scrolling through a PDF. It's just possible (though those of a more mature vintage may scoff) that the youngest members of a team may not even know how to make photocopies anymore.

Though the activity that made Xerox a household name is still going strong, the company isn't prepared to simply rest on its laurels. It has rapidly expanding IT Solutions and Digital Services businesses, putting a foot firmly into the new economy. These are businesses it champions through its partnership with the Aston Martin Formula One Team – while also reminding everyone that it's enormous in the world of ink.

Here, Xerox Chief Marketing Officer Darren Cassidy explains why partnering with Aston Martin Aramco is quite a bit more than a branding exercise.

We have two challenges…

"…and these are the reason Aston Martin Aramco is a great fit for us. The first is simple: we've got a generation – a younger generation – that actually doesn't know our brand. We've got an iconic legacy brand. A classic brand – very similar to Aston Martin in many ways – but the demographic says you need to be a certain age to know it. So, for us, this is about reaching that under-30 audience in a more relevant way. This partnership helps us change that.

"The second part is the people that do know us, know us for the legacy of being a print organisation – and we would very much like to show that we're now much more than this. We're still that print business, but we're also a digital business and an IT business.

"Our mission with the partnership is to amplify these things: reach an audience we won't reach naturally and tell a slightly different story to the people that have known us for a long time.

"I started at Xerox in 1990 – feel free to tell me I don't look old enough – and it's taken me all over the world. In that time, we've been through many different iterations of our company, but the biggest transformation is the one right here, right now. We're three years into our reinvention and it's a very exciting time."

The team has some of the world's greatest companies as partners. Enabling those companies to connect with each other is a key focus for us.

F1 is the place to be… and Aston Martin Aramco is the place to be in F1

"Frankly, we're here for the audience. As a partner of Aston Martin Aramco, we can connect to 1.6 billion viewers, and to 5.7 million people who attend races. One in six people have interacted with Netflix's Drive to Survive series. It makes F1 a really compelling proposition.

"Aston Martin is an iconic brand that has been reinvented in F1, and there are parallels there for us: we're an iconic brand, and we need to reinvent our business. The histories and legacies fit together nicely.

"The bit that shines through for me is that whoever we talk to at Aston Martin Aramco absolutely lives the brand. It comes through in every conversation, every interaction, every time we bring a partner or a client. We want to deal with authentic organisations that really mean what they're saying, and with Aston Martin Aramco, we see that every day.

"Going to the AMR Technology Campus exemplifies this. We had an event there last year, and under other circumstances we would have to work quite hard to get an audience for our events. Our clients are busy, and to take their time we must push. This was the first thing we've done in a long time that produced a waiting list.

"We had 200 people attend and everything was first class – from the first moment we were greeted by the staff in the gatehouse, everyone is on brand, on message and with a smile on their face. Taking clients around to see the technology and the precision within the campus, everyone is wowed by that. It's really impressive, and exactly the sort of association we would like to seed."

Aston Martin Aramco shares our views on sustainability

"Sustainability is huge for us, and yes, it's been in our DNA for a long time, and we've been reporting on sustainability for a long time. From early lifecycle thinking in our print business to establishing one of the first employee resource groups more than 60 years ago, it's been embedded in how we operate.

"So, this is in our blood, and we won't work with people who don't pay attention to it. And from what we see, it's a deliberate focus at Aston Martin Aramco. It's not treated as a game, and that means a lot to us. It's a really important factor in the partnerships that we have. We need to have that sort of commitment from partners who live it for real."

The results are tangible

"Is our partnership delivering? In business, we need tangible ways of assessing everything. So, we monitor the number of people who came to the event that we had at Silverstone with Aston Martin Aramco, we monitor the people there, the prospects, the pipeline that we create, and the deals that we generate.

"It's difficult to work out how much of that is influenced by the event, and there's certainly some nuance, but the results are unequivocal: we're delivering over a three-to-one return on the investment, that we can sensibly attribute to either relationships we've furthered or opportunities we've developed. Is it absolute? No. Is there a leap we have to take? Yes. But as forensically as we can, we track what we do and three-to-one is what we see.

"And this is just the first year of our partnership. On the Xerox side, we're still learning; we think we can do better from the relationship this year.

"We're doing four marquee events this season, in Melbourne, Montréal , Silverstone and Austin, with a major hospitality offering for our clients. We'll have a presence at other races but in a lower-key way. We try to bring a mix: prospective clients where we think it can advance opportunities through relationships but also existing clients because we value the relationships we have.

"We don't have many clients that buy all our offerings so we've always gotten opportunities expanding on the services that we provide when we have this time with clients. We also bring our channel partners. Our channel partners and the ecosystem of partners we have are also really important. We're an organisation that goes to market through partnerships and other organisations.

"Coming to a Grand Prix is a great opportunity in that regard. There's nothing like spending hours with people in this type of environment to really get to know them, to show that you value them, to say thank you, to listen and to open up into the sort of conversation that you don't have on a virtual call. It's just different.

"One thing we want to do to extract more value from our partnership with Aston Martin Aramco is to connect better with the network that already exists here. The team has some of the world's greatest companies as partners. Enabling those companies to connect with each other is a key focus for us. It creates more opportunities for partners to understand each other's capabilities and unlock additional value across the ecosystem.

"And also, to trade with each other, because you create a really good marketplace. It's a huge opportunity, built around the common theme of being partners of Aston Martin Aramco."

Our clients and our partners get excited when they see the things we're doing in collaboration with Aston Martin Aramco.

We work to emphasise the parallels between the brands

"Our connection with Aston Martin Aramco isn't just rooted in heritage. It's grounded in how both brands use technology and innovation to push performance. We highlight the parallels in how we solve problems, move fast, and use data to create better experiences. The Aston Martin brand helps us open the door, but the value comes from the shared approach to modern, tech‑driven excellence.

"We had an event at the end of February, across four days, with a hundred clients attending on each day. We had an Aston Martin Aramco F1 car on display and we had the simulators. It creates a real draw and adds an extra dimension to what we do. We've used new AI technology to have an AI-generated video of Fernando Alonso delivering personalised messages to our clients and employees.

"That sort of creative touch feels special. It makes a difference. We know our clients and our partners, and they get excited when they see the things we're doing in collaboration with Aston Martin Aramco."

We are becoming increasingly involved as a technical partner

"Technology sharing is something we're working on very hard, because it's an area where we want to work faster and do more. Obviously, we provide global print solutions for the team but we're also looking at how to use our augmented reality [AR] applications and software too.

"That can work through goggles or on a device, i.e. a phone or tablet. It allows you to replicate the world in a digital environment, to allow the team to do work in a useful timeframe and create value.

"One example is the livery of the car. Obviously, that's a fast-moving item, changing a little from race-to-race with regional sponsors, different contractual obligations and so forth, and our AR software allows Aston Martin Aramco to see the changed livery, and make sure everything fits correctly and looks right, before the physical work is done.

"This is really a starting point for the application. Once the technology is understood, the use cases will multiply. And, as an IT solutions provider, we're doing this across a broad swathe of projects. It's one of the most dynamic IT environments in the world, so there are opportunities to show what we can do."

New business

"We're an unashamedly proud legacy print company and we're not going anywhere. Where there's print, we're going to be there. In fact, in Australia, we're relaunching the brand for the first time in six years, having operated with a different relationship in that part of the world for a while.

"There are some exciting opportunities in print. But increasingly, we're also a fast-growing IT solution provider, and we're a digital services company. We're helping organisations automate work within the digital world that we're in now. We have a communications and a marketing business that will help Aston Martin Aramco engage with its fan base and communicate with partners on a very deep and personal level. So, our push as a company is to keep the legacy but expand into these new areas faster.

"Print is global, but for building our new businesses, you have to place your bets. We're making good progress in the US and Europe, particularly in the UK, Netherlands, and France – and have pockets in places like India, Egypt and the Middle East where digital services are doing well and we're now adding IT solutions.

"Our goal is to take everything global while acknowledging you can't do everything, everywhere, all at once. It's regional now, but that's just where we are today. F1, of course, is a global sport, but many of the markets in which we want to expand have the strongest F1 core following. The sport gives us access in a way I don't think would be the case with any other form of partnership.

"Our brand recognition is very strong, but it is firmly rooted in print. Whether that helps or hampers our new business is an interesting question, and the result of our research is that it can be viewed as a strength, because when people think about Xerox, and when our clients talk about Xerox, the word that comes up repeatedly is 'trust'."

The goal is consolidation and growth

"When we moved into these businesses, we started from a position of trust, and that's an incredible place to begin. That trust gives us permission to expand, strengthen, and deliver across a broader set of services. Our IT Solutions business continues to grow at a strong double‑digit rate, and our digital services business is scaling steadily as we extend it into more regions. We're able to do that because high‑profile clients already rely on us to deliver."