INTRODUCTION

Welcome to the second edition of the Global Customer Engagement That said, even the most on-point strategy can encounter unforeseen
Review. When the pandemic arrived two years ago, we entered an challenges when it moves off of the whiteboard and into execution.
irreversible new era of customer expectations. On the journey since, Modern customer engagement is an interdisciplinary sport, but it’s
each of us had the opportunity to reassess our relationships and tough to maintain agile collaboration as businesses expand and teams
reflect on what we value most. That period of reflection and change specialize. This report will help you see around corners and learn from
has fundamentally altered every aspect of our lives, including the way others, catching problems before they have a chance to undermine
we approach brand relationships and how we decide which of their your efforts. Undoing the legacy of siloed teams and technology to
products and services are worthy of inclusion in our lives. Navigating this unblock the flow of ideas takes grit and persistence, but the payoff
transition is the latest customer engagement challenge for brands, and makes the effort well worthwhile. The consumer is the big winner,
businesses around the world are rising to the occasion and continuing enjoying more relevant communication with the brands they count on
to gain confidence in their ability to navigate this next normal. for everything from financial services and wellness and healthcare to
transportation, commerce, and entertainment.
Digging deeper into what is working, some clear trends emerge. We
continue to see a strong association between coordinated, personalized, Take note of the detailed customer case studies included here for
cross-channel customer engagement strategies and positive business inspiration—you’ll see examples from a range of industries and located
outcomes. Businesses with ambitious customer engagement strategies all around the world. We hope you will find this research useful as you
and the expertise to implement them are surpassing their revenue goals, chart your own course to customer engagement success.
while the others are falling further behind.

Consumers expect real-time, personalized

communication, seamlessly choreographed
across the channels and platforms they prefer,
in a way that feels relevant and human.
Bill Magnuson
To meet these expectations, brand strategy must focus on establishing
CEO and Cofounder, Braze
a personal connection through customer engagement, and seamlessly
integrating both product and marketing experiences into people’s lives.
B R A ZE 1
 Report Data Sources
ABOUT THIS REPORT
1 Decision-Maker Survey: Conducted by Wakefield Research
on behalf of Braze, this survey gathered insights from 1,500 VP+

What to Expect marketing executives from business-to-consumer (B2C) companies

with an annual revenue of $10+ million across 14 global markets
in the 2022 (Australia, France, Germany, Indonesia, Japan, the Philippines,

Global Customer Singapore, Spain, South Korea, Sweden, Thailand, UAE/Dubai, the
UK, and the US) to uncover year-over-year trends, top strategies,
Engagement and the impact of customer engagement on revenue.

Review 2 Braze Customer Data: As a leading customer engagement

platform that powers experiences between consumers and
In this annual report’s second 1,000+ brands in 50+ countries, Braze has exclusive insight into the

installment, we assess shifts marketing and technology landscape. Our research included data
aggregated from over 5.4 billion global users to provide analysis for
in customer engagement
activation, monetization, and retention trends.
trends over the past year, what
to expect next year, and how 3 Customer Stories: To demonstrate the tangible success of best-

brands can address evolving in-class customer engagement strategies, we spoke with leading
brands in five industries and three regions.
consumer needs, channel
preferences, and privacy
concerns. To inform this report, Financial Health and Media and QSR and Retail and
Services Wellness Entertainment Delivery eCommerce
we analyzed data from three
different sources.
APAC EMEA US
B R A ZE 2
Table of Contents

Top Trends in Customer Engagement in 2022 ..................4 The State of Customer Engagement by Industry ........18
Confidence in Customer Engagement is Paying Off ........5 Financial Services: Brands Must Focus on
Customer Experience ......................................................................................19
A Shift Toward Zero- and First-Party Data ....................................6
Health and Wellness: Brands Playing Catch Up on
Brands’ Top Challenge Is Now Data Management .............7
Digital Transformation ....................................................................................23
The Braze Customer Engagement Index ................................8 Media and Entertainment: Brands Need to Double
Why Does the Braze Customer Engagement Down to Keep Users Engaged ...............................................................27
Index Matter? ..........................................................................................................9
QSR and Delivery: New Opportunities for More Growth .....31
How Brands Performed Against the Braze Customer
Retail and Ecommerce: Almost Everything
Engagement Index in 2021 vs. 2020 .................................................10
Happens Online ...................................................................................................35
Team Competencies Explained .......................................................11
The State of Customer Engagement by Region ...........39
Ace Teams: Where Do Brands Excel? ...........................................12
APAC: The Era of Online Is Here—For Good .............................40
Ace Teams: Opportunities for Improvement ..........................13
EMEA: Digital Engagement is Complicated by
What Do the Staffing, Culture, and Strategy Privacy Concerns ................................................................................................43
Competencies Tell Us? ...............................................................................14
US: Today’s Landscape is a Challenging One ........................46
Tech Competencies Explained ........................................................15
Conclusion ...................................................................................................................49
Ace Tech: Where Do Brands Excel? ................................................16
Methodology .............................................................................................................50
Ace Tech: Opportunities for Improvement ...............................17

B R A ZE 3
Top Trends
in Customer
Engagement in 2022
After surveying 1,500 VP+ marketing
executives at consumer-facing brands
across the globe, we identified three
pervasive customer engagement themes
to watch carefully as we head into 2022.

Brands are more confident than

1 ever about customer engagement,
and it’s paying off

With third-party cookies on the

2 decline, we’re entering the era of
zero- and first-party data

Data management is now the top

3 challenge for brands, outranking
all other concerns

B R A ZE 4
Confidence in Customer Engagement is Paying Off

94% of Brands Report Good/Excellent Customer

Engagement in Today’s Challenging Landscape
As the digital acceleration brought on by COVID-19 matures With More Confidence
and investment in customer engagement increases, brands are Comes More Revenue
becoming more confident in their own efforts. This year, 43% of
marketers said their company does an excellent job of customer
engagement, up from only 32% the year prior. Overall, 94% of 98% of companies that ranked their
brands rated their practices as excellent or good, up from 88% customer engagement efforts as excellent
last year. or good exceeded their revenue goals. Of
those that didn’t, only 65% met revenue goals.
Positive Impact of Cross-Channel Engagement on
Likelihood to Buy Rises 48% YoY While some of this increase can likely be tied
This year, a cross-channel engagement strategy that combines to a recovering economy, that doesn’t negate
both in-product messages (like in-app messages) and out- the impact that a deeper focus on customer
of-product messages (like email and push) increased a user’s engagement can bring. COVID-19 drove big
likelihood to buy by 3.1X, compared to a single-channel approach. shifts in consumer behavior, so brands who
That’s up from 2.1X in 2020, a rise of 48% year over year. But while have worked to embrace true customer-
combining in-product and out-of-product channels sees top centricity are well-positioned to see the bulk
results, even adding one more channel can have a positive impact: of those revenue gains going forward.
On average, each additional channel you add to your messaging
mix results in 4.3X more purchases per user and a 2.8X lift in
likelihood to buy.

B R A ZE 5
A Shift Toward Zero- and First-Party Data

Brands Are Investing in Zero- and First-Party Data Strategies

In 2021, Google announced plans to retire third-party cookies while Apple
The Impact of Engaging
revealed a comprehensive set of new consumer-centric privacy features. To
With Anonymous Users on
accommodate these changes, 96% of brands plan to increase their marketing Just One Channel
budgets, with 42% boosting how many channels they use and 38% putting
more emphasis on zero-party (i.e. shared by users) and first-party (i.e.
gathered with user consent) data collection methods. Additionally, brands
listed customer data platforms (CDPs) as a top area for increased investment 5.3X 64%
during 2022, reflecting a renewed focus on holistic data management.

Pay Attention to the Majority of Your Users—the Increase in Increase in likelihood

Anonymous Ones likelihood to buy to make a repeat
purchase
Changes in the data landscape are leading brands to abandon third-party data
and focus instead on creating impactful, relevant experiences through other In 2021, 80% of anonymous users
means. One strategy that brands should consider is engaging anonymous received no messages at all from
users. These users—who take action on websites without logging in, opt to brands. This lack of engagement with
“continue as guest,” or who haven’t been given an official identifier—made a major category of active users is
up 57% of new users in 2021, reflecting a major untapped audience. Thankfully, likely driving down overall results and
brands already have first-party data (e.g. favorited items, session data) that potentially costing brands millions in
can support messaging campaigns that will engage anonymous users. Plus, unrealized revenue.
conversion tactics like in-app surveys leverage first-party data while surfacing
additional insights like anonymous users’ preferences.

B R A ZE 6
Brands’ Top Challenge Is Now Data Management

Digital Transformation Brings More Data and Additionally, last year’s top challenges are taking a backseat
New Challenges to data concerns, too. Only 28% of brands are concerned with
As brands expand and evolve their digital strategies, they’re standing out in a crowded marketplace (compared to 35% the
generating even more data as customers interact with year before), while 23% of brands are worried about oversaturation
new and varied touchpoints. While this data is integral to or burning out customers, down from 30% in 2020.
meeting customers’ wants and needs, it can sometimes
be overwhelming for brands to manage. That is the key Move to a Built-For-Purpose Tech Stack That
challenge of 2022 for customer engagement—three of the Supports All Your Data Needs
four top concerns for brands this year are all about data and Meet this challenge by ensuring there’s streaming data and
how to leverage it effectively. data agility across your tech stack. When all of your systems can
communicate effectively and in real time, you can avoid the silos
and reliance on batched data that leads to frustrating, outdated
Top Concerns for Brands in 2022
consumer experiences.

Collecting, integrating, and managing data 32%

Applying data to business decisions 31%

Enabling cross-team access to relevant

30%
data in a timely and productive fashion

B R A ZE 7
The Braze Customer Engagement Index
To help assess the maturity of brands’ customer engagement strategies, last year we
developed a proprietary framework based on organizational and technological themes.
We’ll again be evaluating brands against these 12* key factors.

Tech Channels Classification Data Orchestration Performance Personalization

Teams Culture Experimentation Metrics Objectives Staffing Strategy

From there, we’re able to identify where a brand ranks in terms of our three categories of
customer engagement maturity: Activate (least mature), Accelerate, and Ace (most mature).

Ace

Accelerate At these top-performing

Activate brands, customer

Brands on this level collaborate
engagement is
across departments, have a strong
Just beginning to recognize customer lifecycle-centric,
experimentation culture, and
engagement as important to business owned by
robust metrics. However, they still
goals, these brands likely only focus cross-functional
are campaign-oriented and lack a
on campaign- and channel-specific teams, and built on
comprehensive view of customers
solutions with limited metrics. streaming data.
across platforms and channels.

* Complete methodology available on page 50

B R A ZE 8
 Why Does the Braze Customer Engagement Index Matter?

Ace Brands Make More Money As Retention Becomes the Top Priority,
Bottom line: Ace brands drive more revenue with their Customer Engagement Grows Essential
customer engagement efforts compared to other companies. A focus on retention isn’t new, but in the past, brands tended
In fact, 77% of Ace brands stated they exceeded their revenue to devote more energy and marketing resources to acquisition
goals this year. This dynamic appears across all industries and and top-of-funnel growth. This dynamic is changing, as
company sizes; our index is based on 1,000+ brands ranging shown by the 30% increase in brands allocating 51–75% of
from high-growth small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) to their budget for retention compared to last year. Overall, 92%
global enterprises operating across a range of business units. of brands allocate 25–75% of their budget towards retaining
existing customers. By operationalizing customer data and
orchestrating cross-channel experiences, brands can engage
with customers in meaningful ways that elicit deeper loyalty
and bolster long-term user retention.
An Analysis of Top-Performing Ace Brands and
Their Customer Engagement Programs

Technology Teams The Impact

Increase in user-to-buyer
More likely to be using 3+
More likely to actively experiment 11.4X conversion rates
14% channels*
2.3X with campaigns and customer
journeys across channels*
Increase in
More likely to use a single More likely to have employees 72% sessions per user
25% solution to orchestrate 42% trained on customer engagement
cross-channel campaigns* technologies and approaches*
Increase in average
89% user lifetime
B R A ZE * Compared to non-Ace brands 9
How Brands Performed Against the Braze Sample Survey Respondents:
A Look at Three Real Brands
Customer Engagement Index in 2021 vs. 2020*
On the whole, the brands we examined saw meaningful improvement when it came to Ace
Country: Australia
customer engagement competencies, with the percentage of brands that qualified as
Industry: Retail
either Accelerate or Ace growing year over year.
Years in business: 3
2021 Activate: 28% 2021 Accelerate: 52% 2021 Ace: 20% Employees: 2,000
(-17.5% YoY) (+6% YoY) (+17.5% YoY)
Tech: Single solution for multiple
channels managed through a
single interface
Team: Marketing, with collaboration
with other teams several times a week

Accelerate
Country: US
Teams Industry: Health and Wellness
Years in business: 9

2020 Employees: 10
Ace: 17% Tech: Single solution that executes
across all channels
Team: Cross-functional digital team,
2020 with bi-weekly collaboration
Accelerate: 49%

Activate
2020
Tech Activate: 34% Country: United Kingdom
Industry: Financial Services
However, growth didn’t occur equally across all 12 competencies; in fact, some competencies Years in business: 6
even saw year-over-year declines. For a closer look at how brands’ approaches to customer Employees: 8

engagement shifted over the last year, let’s examine the top-performing competencies (and Tech: Multiple channels that have
channel-specific solutions
the competencies where more improvement is possible) for both tech and teams.
Team: Non-marketing, with once
* While the overall shape of the Customer Engagement Index was stable year over a quarter collaboration
B R A ZE year, some changes were made to specific questions informing the index (e.g. the 10
personalization competency shifted to take into account the impact of real-time data).
Team Competencies Explained

No matter how powerful a given technology is, it can’t reach its full potential without the right mix of stakeholders. The way that a
brand structures its customer engagement teams, whether or not leaders encourage and prioritize collaboration, and a company’s
overall digital culture can make or break customer engagement success over the long haul.

TEAMS

Competency Activate Accelerate Ace

CULTURE Collaboration occurs less Bi-weekly or weekly Continuous collaboration

How work gets done than once a month collaboration

EXPERIMENTATION No framework in place, or Continuous with many Continuous with cross-

Strength of test and one-off experiments experiments running at once departmental leads
learn culture

METRICS Mix of message engagement Additional, more advanced Even more metrics, with
How success is and product adoption metrics like customer lifetime focus on top-line/bottom-line
measured value (LTV) business metrics

OBJECTIVES Mostly team-focused and Mixed, with a single definition Company-wide, single
How success is siloed by department of success versioned out by definition of cross-
defined team and role functional success

STAFFING A single team The marketing team Cross-functional team(s)

Ownership of customer collaborates with other teams
engagement programs like engineering

STRATEGY Strategy based on improving Activate plus improving Accelerate plus alignment
Plan of action that ladders high-level engagement downstream metrics (e.g. with product and company
up to specific goals metrics (e.g. open rate) retention/loyalty) and strategies
customer behavior

B R A ZE 11
Ace Teams: Where Do Brands Excel?
While evaluating the survey responses against the six factors in the Teams category, we identified
two notable areas where a significant percentage of brands demonstrate Ace competencies.

TOP COMPETENCY: MOST IMPROVED COMPETENCY:

Experimentation Culture
Whether it’s new channels, campaigns, or messaging Culture speaks to how teams collaborate across roles and
strategies, top-performing brands have a culture of departments when it comes to customer engagement. This
experimentation that allows teams to understand what year, we saw significant growth in the Ace category, which
actually impacts their goals. Since many experiments carried reflects teams that are either meeting multiple times a week
out by Ace brands are complex and concurrent, cross- or continuously collaborating.
departmental collaboration with data teams is essential to 48%
ensuring experiments are set up and measured correctly.
43%

22%
Of brands were classified as Ace for 15%
35% Experimentation, the same as 2020

2020 2021 2020 2021

More brands regularly partner with their Of brands achieved Ace Of brands had teams that
46% data analysis teams to plan tests* Culture competency met with other departments
once a month or less

More brands are continuously experimenting

At the same time, within the Culture competency, we saw
33% and pulling in-depth insights* the number of brands in the low-maturity Activate category
grow as well, with 48% of brands meeting a maximum of
once per month.
B R A ZE * Compared to non-Ace brands 12
Ace Teams: Opportunities for Improvement
Although brands generally scored well in all six Teams competencies, we
identified two categories where they had the most room for additional gains.

LOW SCORE: MOST ROOM FOR GROWTH:

Staffing Strategy
Over this past year, there was a prominent shift in how teams Only 11% of the brands qualified as Ace in the Strategy
own customer engagement. Not only did we see a decline in competency; most brands (89%) focus on improving
Ace, but many brands fell from Accelerate to Activate. metrics ranging from engagement metrics (like click-
through rates) to downstream metrics like retention and
loyalty. To be categorized as Ace, brands need to consider
83% customer sentiment, company goals, and product in their
70% strategies.

5% 2%
2020 2021 2020 2021

Of brands were classified Of brands were classified

as Ace for Staffing as Activate for Staffing

While marketing still primarily owns customer engagement,

collaboration with other key departments like engineering and
analytics has decreased year over year, increasing the odds
that brands will struggle with customer engagement silos.

B R A ZE 13
What Do the Staffing, Culture, and
Strategy Competencies Tell Us?
As teams begin to leverage more sophisticated technologies and robust engagement
strategies, it’s increasingly important to be a unified team with shared goals. For example:

Highly complex strategies often require support

from other teams to achieve. When all relevant teams
maintain regular communication, they can better
address and prioritize issues that would otherwise stall
marketing teams.

Your customer engagement strategy should

complement your brand and product strategy. By
existing in a silo (as can occur when only the marketing
team focuses on customer engagement), you’re missing
opportunities to support the full range of objectives that
matter for your company.

Marketing-specific metrics should factor into your user

campaigns, but ultimately a customer engagement
strategy should drive company-wide goals.

B R A ZE 14
Tech Competencies Explained

As brands look to push their customer engagement efforts forward, they need to ensure they have technology on hand that’s
capable of supporting innovation, exceptional customer experiences, and robust testing across the full range of teams and
digital channels. To make that happen, they also need to know how to make use of their tech stack to its fullest extent.

TECH

Competency Activate Accelerate Ace

CHANNELS Mix of in-house and external Single solution that executes Accelerate, plus use of
Technology choice solutions supporting different across in-product and out-of- channel optimization
channels product channels

CLASSIFICATION Based on channel Based on customer Sorted on a real-time basis

How customer segments information and past behavior as new inputs are collected
are sorted

DATA INGESTION Combination of zero-, first-, Activate, plus use of AI or Accelerate, plus data flows
Data sources and third-party modeling in real time

ORCHESTRATION One main channel or Campaign-oriented with Instrumented for automated

How customer experiences campaigns with multiple multiple channels customer lifecycles
are orchestrated disconnected channels

PERFORMANCE Static results from one Results are synced with Performance feedback
How performance feedback campaign inform the next insights from other platforms automatically updates and
is analyzed and acted upon adjusts

PERSONALIZATION Customer-provided, with Engagement-based, like clicks or Accelerate plus optimization

How personalization is information like names and views, or based on context from via real-time data
triggered past purchases public APIs or internal systems

B R A ZE 15
Ace Tech: Where Do Brands Excel?
When analyzing the survey responses with the six competencies in the Tech category, we found
two prominent areas where a significant percentage of brands demonstrate Ace competencies.

TOP COMPETENCY: MOST IMPROVED COMPETENCY:

Classification Personalization
For the second year in a row, Classification is the highest We’ve seen Ace personalization status more than double year
scoring competency. More brands moved up from the over year. In 2021, 53% of brands personalized messaging
Activate level, with 33% of brands ranking as Ace for based on real-time data—important because it creates
Classification in 2021 vs. 32% the year prior. frictionless experiences and prevents frustrating ones (like
out-of-date discount messages). Some of this growth resulted
from a change to our survey: Last year, we didn’t distinguish
Of brands segment users based on past
35% customer information and behavior between real-time and prior customer engagement data (e.g.
clicks, views, browsing behavior), something we adjusted in
this year’s survey.
Of brands segment users based
33% on real-time data 2020 2021

33%
Of brands capture real-time
engagement data
22%
10%
Of brands achieved Ace status for Personalization

2022 and beyond: Already personalizing messages with real-time

data? Next, leverage auto-optimization tools that responsively
adjust campaigns to support more relevant messages.
B R A ZE 16
Ace Tech: Opportunities for Improvement
Out of all six Tech competencies, we identified two areas that had the
most opportunity for companies to make meaningful progress.

LOW SCORE: MOST ROOM FOR GROWTH:

Performance Orchestration
To improve their campaigns—or even to know if they are The usage of a single primary messaging channel declined
successful in the first place—brands must have a strong from 20% in 2020 to 15% in 2021. However, 33% of brands
handle on their performance metrics. We found that Ace have shifted to using multiple channel-specific solutions
brands are taking things a step further by automating that like an Email Service Provider (ESP) or a mobile messaging
practice, exporting performance analytics back to other provider, up from 26% in 2020. Reliance on a single
platforms for deeper analysis. customer engagement solution has decreased slightly to
only 25% in 2021.
2020 2021
2020 2021

26% 25%
28% 25%
Of brands ranked as Ace for Performance
Of brands achieved Ace for Orchestration
HOT TIP: Measurement is a pillar of a great customer
When using multiple solutions to orchestrate campaigns,
engagement program. By having a strong handle on
brands often have an incomplete view of their customers due
Performance, brands set themselves up for success in
to data latency or incompatible technologies. This tends to
other competencies like Experimentation, Strategy,
lead to out-of-touch, frustrating consumer experiences that
and Orchestration.
raise the risk that customers turn elsewhere to meet their needs.
B R A ZE 17
The State of
Customer
Engagement
by Industry
While the right technology and teamwork
can support success for a wide range
of businesses, the challenges and
opportunities that companies face can
differ significantly across verticals. To dig
a little deeper, let’s take a look at how Ace
brands approach customer engagement
across five major industries:

Financial Services
Health and Wellness
Media and Entertainment
QSR and Delivery
Retail and eCommerce

B R A ZE 18
 FINANCIAL
SERVICES
Brands Must Focus on
Customer Experience

In an industry historically dominated by long-standing Financial Services Brands by Maturity Level

institutions, the financial services sector has seen the rise
of smaller competitors focused on catering to individuals’ Activate 29%

needs over the last 10 years. As services became more

Accelerate 53%
complex, costly, and time-consuming—like time to transfer
Ace 18%
money or fees associated with products—disruptors saw
the opportunity to challenge long-time industry leaders.
This dynamic is echoed in our survey, where 38% of brands Although both types of brands have similar customer

polled have been in business for less than 10 years. engagement goals, where they should focus their
attention and resources differs greatly.

Across the industry, we’re seeing a growing focus

on customer service supported by seamless digital
experiences, and all types of brands need to prioritize
innovation when it comes to their customer experience.

B R A ZE 19
 FINANCIAL
SERVICES
Focus For Improvement

LONG-STANDING CHALLENGERS

Data Orchestration Experimentation Strategy

Performance
Prioritize Data Agility to Move the Needle

While they have the advantage of reputation,

Optimize the Customer Experience With Data
long-standing financial institutions can also have
Data, tech, and organizational challenges that lead Challenger brands have essentially the opposite

to frustrating and dated consumer experiences. issue: While consumers are drawn to their

For example, a retail bank can have different innovative and intuitive nature, it can be a challenge

arms responsible for its credit card services, to convince them to adopt these emerging brands

bank brands, and digital banking, with separate as their primary banking or financial services

messaging solutions for each business unit. Large partner, or to expand their use of higher-value

businesses must stream and share data across products/services. By prioritizing Experimentation,

these units to support the Orchestration of Strategy, and personalization, these companies can

seamless consumer experiences. boost Performance by driving adoption of higher-

value offerings while continuing their focus on
frictionless experiences.

B R A ZE 20
 FINANCIAL Ace Teams
SERVICES

33% 5.3X 40%

Ace Brand More likely to assess the More likely to actively More likely to have

Industry Trends results from customer

engagement activities
experiment with their
campaigns and customer
employees trained on
customer engagement
journeys across channels tech and approaches
We analyzed top-performing
financial services brands to
uncover how they achieve Ace Technology
success in the industry.
2.3X 2.5X 2.1X
More likely to individually More likely to use More likely to make use
personalize messages at automated systems of in-app messages
send time to optimize campaign in their customer
performance messaging

Ace Business Results

72% 35%
Increase in Increase in average
sessions per user user lifetime

B R A ZE 21
 FINANCIAL
SERVICES
Public.com Leverages Personalized,
Cross-Channel Engagement to Drive
A Better Investing Experience

Technology has brought unprecedented access to stocks, funds, and emerging

opportunities (e.g. crypto). Popular investing platform Public.com is setting
the industry standard with personalized content and education to help its
diverse community become better investors. Public.com turned to Braze and
Braze Alloys partners Looker and Segment to personalize their cross-channel
communications with real-time data. Public.com used email, in-app messages,
and push notifications to share educational content related to Public Live (live
audio shows breaking down market news) and Town Halls (Q&As with public
company CEOs), providing key context around market shifts and high-interest
public companies. The team also used the testing features built into the
Braze Canvas user journey builder to assess how these campaigns impacted
engagement with their app’s educational content. Public.com drove 40% of
users to engage with executives via Town Halls after receiving a push or email
and increased attendance for its Public Live sessions by 2X.
2X
Higher attendance Tech Ace Factors Teams Ace Factors
at Public Live
sessions with
cross-channel Channels Performance Culture Experimentation
messaging

Data Personalization Strategy

B R A ZE 22
 HEALTH AND
WELLNESS
Brands Playing Catch Up on
Digital Transformation

While health and wellness were top of mind for many Despite their slow start, we found that health and wellness
consumers during the COVID-19 pandemic, only 46% of brands know where they want to go and how to get there.
brands stated they exceeded their annual revenue goals, More than any other vertical, they are focused on investing
almost 30% lower than the next lowest-scoring industry. in customer engagement, giving them a potential leg up in
In addition, they’ve only just begun to leverage mobile: this area in the coming year.
59% stated that they started engaging with customers
Top Areas Health and Wellness Brands Plan to Invest In
via mobile in the past 1–5 years, 55% more than the next-
slowest industry.
49%
Plan to increase their investment in customer
engagement over the next 12 months

47%
Have identified Customer Data Platforms (CDPs)
Unsurprisingly, customer engagement efforts in this space as a top area for investment
tend not to be as mature as other industries. However, this
50%
Plan to invest their increased marketing budgets in
challenge also means that health and wellness brands have expanding channels and data collection

a lot of opportunity for accelerated growth this next year.

This industry faces particularly strict regulations, with laws
Health and Wellness Brands by Maturity Level like HIPAA in the US setting down strict rules governing
the ways that Personal Identifiable Information (PII) and/
Activate 40%
or Protected Health Information (PHI) can be collected,
Accelerate 43% processed, and leveraged. Based on our survey, 48% of
health and wellness brands state that collecting, integrating,
Ace 17%
and managing marketing data is their top challenge.
B R A ZE 23
 HEALTH AND
WELLNESS
Focus For Improvement

TEAMS TECH

Culture Staffing Channels Data

Orchestration
Prioritize Cross-Team Communication and
Collaboration
Use Data to Support More Relevant Messages
Improving these two competencies (Culture and
Staffing) can help health and wellness brands On the Tech side, evolving these three areas will

ensure their customer engagement efforts are create more meaningful messaging for consumers,

aligned and supported cross-functionally, which will and drive more revenue. With better data ingestion,

positively impact business goals. For example, the brands can organize the Data they are collecting,

product managers responsible for optimizing the while a focus on Orchestration means brands

UX of streaming fitness brands’ mobile products can use that data to create seamless experiences

must align their agile testing process to that of the across all the Channels a user is on.

marketers running A/B tests for lifecycle emails.

B R A ZE 24
 HEALTH AND Ace Teams
WELLNESS

33% 75% 19%

Ace Brand More likely to assess the More likely to actively More likely to have

Industry Trends results from customer

engagement activities
experiment with their
campaigns and customer
employees trained on
customer engagement
journeys tech and approaches
We analyzed top-performing
health and wellness brands
to uncover how they achieve Ace Technology
success in the industry.
12% 50% 74%
More likely to be More likely to automate More likely to individually
using 3+ channels systems to optimize personalize their
campaign performance messages at send time

Ace Business Results

19% 2.5X
Increase in sessions Increase in average
per user user lifetime

B R A ZE 25
 HEALTH AND
WELLNESS PureGym Deploys a Cross-Channel
Campaign to Drive Higher
Win-Back Rates

PureGym offers low-cost and flexible memberships across nearly 300 gyms
in the United Kingdom. Like many fitness brands, getting previous members
to rejoin is a huge priority for the PureGym team. To win back these ex-
members, PureGym created a cross-channel campaign with Braze Canvas
(our customer journey builder) that targeted users based on their previous
behavior and delivered messages using the channel they engaged with the
most. Based on the segment they were in, PureGym adjusted ex-members’
frequency of communications and messaging hierarchy to reach them more
effectively. By taking this targeted approach, PureGym was able to save six
figures on other promotional efforts and drive a 190% increase in win-backs
on key segments.

Tech Ace Factors Teams Ace Factors

190%
Increase in Win- Channels Performance Metrics Experimentation
Backs on Key
Segments Classification Objectives

B R A ZE 26
 MEDIA AND
ENTERTAINMENT
Brands Need to Double Down
to Keep Users Engaged

It comes as no surprise that the media and entertainment Media and Entertainment Brands by Maturity Level
industry has benefited from the trend toward at-home,
Activate 45%
digital-focused experiences over the past two years. 2020
was the year of streaming, with the space seeing new Accelerate 45%
competitors from well-known brands, larger audiences,
Ace 10%
and bigger budgets. That success is tangible, with 98% of
media and entertainment brands saying that they met or As in many industries, brands in the media and
exceeded their revenue goals over the last year. entertainment sector often struggle with managing
data, especially in the face of new privacy updates.
The landscape doesn’t come without its challenges, 84% of media and entertainment companies state that
however. Consumers are flooded with choice, and often they are planning to increase their marketing budgets
bounce from service to service to access their favorite to accommodate.
shows or new releases. To keep users watching, brands Top Areas Media and Entertainment Brands
need to provide personalized content to match user Plan to Invest In
behavior, both inside their apps and websites and via out-
of-product channels like email. Thankfully, many brands in 41% Customer analytics

this space have a reserve of knowledge and experience to

draw on: Well over half (62%) have leveraged mobile-first 40% Customer engagement

solutions for over 6+ years, and 41% use a single platform to

manage cross-channel campaigns. 40% Mobile/optimization apps

B R A ZE 27
 MEDIA AND
ENTERTAINMENT
Focus For Improvement

Data Personalization Experimentation

Use Data to Inform and Optimize Customer Experiences

Data ingestion should be critical for media and entertainment brands as their services are almost always viewed
on different platforms, such as over-the-top (OTT) channels, mobile, web, etc. By creating a single customer
profile (which only 39% do now), brands can support more valuable, seamless experiences that keep people
watching. Personalization is vital for the industry. As consumers are often engaging with content on these
services daily, being able to personalize users based on real-time behavior ensures recommended content is as
relevant as possible.

The last competency, Experimentation, should be prioritized immediately. Ranging from simple testing of
various customer segments to complex multivariate experiments across channels, this is key to increasing
customer lifetime, retention, and frequency of engagement.

B R A ZE 28
 MEDIA AND Ace Teams
ENTERTAINMENT

10% 2.1X 60%

Ace Brand
More likely to actively More likely to use More likely to have
Industry Trends experiment with their permissioning to ensure employees trained on
campaigns and customer the appropriate teams customer engagement
journeys can collaborate tech and approaches
We analyzed top-performing
media and entertainment brands
to uncover how they achieve Ace Technology
success in the industry.
13% 2.8X 92%
More likely to be More likely to individually More likely to use
​​
using 3+ channels personalize their automated systems
messages at send time to optimize campaign
performance

Ace Business Results

3.2X 2.2X
Increase in sessions Increase in average
per user user lifetime

B R A ZE 29
 MEDIA AND
ENTERTAINMENT Peacock Keeps Users Engaged With
Personalized Lifecycle Messaging

At the height of 2020’s streaming wars, NBCUniversal launched Peacock to

deliver entertainment to its users across any device. With aggressive goals,
Peacock needed a customer engagement strategy built for every customer
lifecycle stage. In the first 13 days following sign-up, users receive an
onboarding flow with the most popular content mixed with genre-specific
content based on first title watched. On the other end of the user lifecycle,
Peacock sends a win-back campaign that, after 30+ days of inactivity, delivers
messages personalized by their recommendation engine via API in real time.

10%
These efforts are supported by Braze Alloys partners mParticle, where they
create audiences based on viewership data, and Movable Ink, which delivers
Rise in Viewing
Activity real-time content based on Peacock’s proprietary recommendation engine.
The onboarding campaign lifted viewership activity by 10%, while the win-back
campaign boosted renewed watching by 18%.

18%
Increase in
Tech Ace Factors Teams Ace Factors

Win-Backs
Data Performance Culture Metrics

Personalization Objectives

B R A ZE 30
 QSR AND
DELIVERY
New Opportunities for More Growth

Few industries were more dramatically impacted by Despite these successes, brands in the space have been
the COVID-19 pandemic than QSR and delivery. While hit hard by labor shortages, with the US restaurant industry
some restaurants struggled due to government-issued finding itself short 1.2 million employees earlier in 2021. This
shutdowns and an increase in customers reluctant to dine major challenge, as well as the vertical’s history of digital
in person again, QSR and delivery brands who had been innovation, is expected to drive a transformation in the way
early—or quick—adopters of mobile and digital strategies food is ordered, prepared, and delivered, with a deeper
were able to thrive, providing an essential service even focus on customer engagement at the forefront.
in the midst of a challenging business landscape. 74% of
these brands exceeded their revenue goals over the last Top Areas QSR and Delivery Brands
year, which makes sense considering that 85% of those Plan to Invest In
polled have mobile services and 42% have a single solution
to engage users across multiple channels. 53% Machine learning/AI

QSR and Delivery Brands by Maturity Level 51% Live chat support or chatbots

Activate 27% 38% Customer satisfaction measurement

Accelerate 54%
Since the QSR and delivery industry is generally more
Ace 18%
advanced in their customer engagement efforts, these
brands can mature quickly by placing a strong focus on
these competencies.

B R A ZE 31
 QSR AND
DELIVERY
Focus For Improvement

TEAMS TECH

Staffing Channels Performance

Connect Customer Engagement to Leverage Auto-Optimization Tools to

Company-Wide Goals Support Stronger Outcomes

92% of these brands are primarily strategizing around A big opportunity for QSR and delivery brands is
engagement and downstream metrics like open and in intelligence and automation, like automatically
retention, respectively. While certainly important, optimizing for the best-performing Channel or
brands in this industry should be embracing adjusting live campaigns based on Performance.
collaborative Staffing approaches to customer These capabilities will allow brands to increase
engagement in order to promote broader company sophistication while having the time and
and product goals. For delivery brands, that could resources for other challenges.
look like increasing adoption of different delivery
service types like groceries or partner retail brands.
QSR brands can use their digital channels to promote
drive-thru improvements and curbside pickup, or
loyalty programs that encourage direct transactions.

B R A ZE 32
 QSR AND Ace Teams
DELIVERY

40% 31% 9%
Ace Brand
More likely to assess the More likely to use More likely to have
Industry Trends results from customer permissioning to ensure employees trained on
engagement activities the appropriate teams customer engagement
can collaborate tech and approaches
We analyzed top-performing
QSR and delivery brands to
uncover how they achieve Ace Technology
success in the industry.

98% 42% 23%

More likely to be More likely to continuously More likely to use a
using 3+ channels export user behavior and single solution to
engagement data for orchestrate cross-channel
analysis campaigns

Ace Business Results

82% 7.9X 2.2X

Increase in repeat Increase in purchases Increase in average
buyer rate per buyer user lifetime

B R A ZE 33
 QSR AND
DELIVERY The Coffee Club Expands its
Loyalty Program With Personalized
Mobile Messages

Australia’s largest café franchise, The Coffee Club now operates across
nine countries with upwards of 40 million annual customers. Like many
traditionally brick-and-mortar businesses, they’ve faced challenges with the
rise of digital. The Coffee Club realized growing their loyalty program via their
app was essential to growing their customer base, especially with a younger
demographic. To quickly put this into practice, the team turned to Content
Cards, which can seamlessly deliver dynamic and persistent content within
a mobile app. Using this channel, The Coffee Club sent barcoded coupons

35%
Increase
that were fully integrated with their point-of-sale (POS) system to a targeted
segment of customers, and personalized them based on custom attributes
in Loyalty
Member Sales and purchase events. Over six months, the campaign drove a 35% lift in loyalty-
driven sales and a 62% increase in conversions for their paid VIP program.

62%
Increase in Paid
Tech Ace Factors Teams Ace Factors

VIP Program Classification Orchestration Objectives Metrics

Conversions
Personalization Staffing

B R A ZE 34
 RETAIL AND
ECOMMERCE
Almost Everything Happens Online

Extremely Online and Ahead of the Curve Retail and eCommerce Brands by Maturity Level
In the face of a global pandemic that kept many people
Activate 27%
home for months on end, some industries had to scramble
to handle the acceleration to digital. But the retail and Accelerate 54%

eCommerce space was ready—in fact, 76% of these

Ace 20%
brands had already been using mobile as a channel for
engagement for 6+ years. This advantage was undercut
While brands in this industry have some of the highest
at times by huge supply chain issues, however, which
maturity scores in the Customer Engagement Index, we
continue to plague the industry.
anticipated even stronger Ace representation here than
the results showed, in part because of the vertical’s status
This unique situation made it essential for retail and
as an early adopter of digital and mobile channels. To build
eCommerce brands to have a clear, meaningful customer
on their success to date, brands in this space should focus
engagement strategy, especially with 73% of sales taking
on the following competencies.
place online, accounting for 51% of industry revenue.

B R A ZE 35
 RETAIL AND
ECOMMERCE
Focus For Improvement

TEAMS TECH

Experimentation Strategy Data Orchestration

Staffing Channels

Embrace Teamwork to Address Lean on Zero-/First-Party Data to Target and

Strategic Challenges Enrich Campaigns

By focusing on these (Experimentation, Strategy, Improving their technical capabilities will allow
Staffing) factors, brands will not only be able to these brands to operationalize zero- and first-
expand their reach, but can better build relationships party Data use, in relation to Orchestration and
with the customers important to achieving their messaging Channels which allows for more
business goals. Concentrating on these three personalized and relevant messages. 35% of
team-related competences will also help address companies say they will allocate increased budget
the upcoming challenges associated with the to focus on zero- and first-party data.
dissolution of third-party cookies, enabling brands to
better reach, engage, and retain their customers.

B R A ZE 36
 RETAIL AND Ace Teams
ECOMMERCE

41% 42% 97%

Ace Brand More likely to assess More likely to have employees More likely to actively

Industry Trends the results from customer

engagement activities
trained on customer
engagement tech and
experiment with their
campaigns and
approaches customer journeys
We analyzed top-performing
retail and eCommerce brands
to uncover how they achieve Ace Technology
success in the industry.
33% 48% 18%
More likely to More likely to More likely to use
continuously export user individually personalize a single solution to
behavior and engagement messages at send time orchestrate cross-
data for analysis channel campaigns

Ace Business Results

8.8X 38% 8.6X

Increase in user-to- Increase in repeat Increase in purchases
buyer conversion rate buyer conversion rate per user

B R A ZE 37
 RETAIL AND
ECOMMERCE Mercari Drives More Sales With
Ladder Incentive Campaigns

Operating globally, Mercari is a peer-to-peer online marketplace that

connects millions of buyers and sellers with its easy-to-use app. As some
users first interact as buyers before becoming sellers, Mercari focuses heavily
on nurturing relationships that drive repeat transactions. When Mercari was
looking to bolster holiday sales, they created a series of campaigns that
incentivized listings by offering discounted fees and credit towards future
purchases. This idea was inspired by a session at the Braze Forge conference
about using ladder incentives to guide people toward increased activity.
8.5%
Increase in
These campaigns were hugely successful, driving a 8.5% increase in sales
and 184% return on advertising spend (ROAS).
Sales

Tech Ace Factors Teams Ace Factors

184%
Return on Performance Culture Experimentation
Advertising
Spend (ROAS) Personalization Strategy

B R A ZE 38
The State of
Customer
Engagement
by Region
Brands across the globe face unique
customer engagement challenges
based on local laws, culture, and
priorities. Here’s a look at the current
landscape in each region:

APAC
EMEA
The US

B R A ZE 39
 APAC Strategies to Engage and Retain APAC Users

ACTIVATE ACCELERATE
The Era of Online Is Here—For Good
Message them Take a multi-channel approach
While consumers all over the world went digital
Engaging APAC users with just Engaging APAC users via
as a result of the pandemic, online growth
one channel* leads to: two channels** leads to:
exploded in APAC. In Southeast Asia (SEA), 60
million new consumers have joined the internet Longer average Longer average
economy since COVID-19 emerged, with 20 3.1X user lifetimes 69% user lifetimes

million of those coming in the first half of 2021

alone. What sets APAC’s high rate of digital
adoption apart is that it’s driven by both mobile- ACE

first brands and consumers. As a result, when the

Take a cross-channel approach
digital economy grows, it further cements the
Creating a cohesive By leveraging Content Cards, email, in-
region’s adoption of mobile.
customer experience for app messages, and mobile push (the
APAC users across multiple most effective channel combination
In this heavily-funded landscape—2021 was channels*** leads to: for boosting APAC users’ retention),
brands can see:
SEA’s busiest year for investment—acquisition
costs are heightened by tough competition with Longer average Longer average
30% user lifetimes 3.1X user lifetimes
money to burn. To achieve sustainable success,
brands must take a customer-centric approach
to everything they do, working to create positive
brand experiences that demonstrate higher *Compared to users receiving no messages
value and build deeper loyalty. **Compared to users receiving messages in just one channel
***With a cross-channel approach (including messages in both in-product and
out-of-product channels), compared to users receiving messages in any two channels

B R A ZE 40
 APAC Channels and Performance Shine, but
Collaboration Could Use More Attention
While APAC is largely in line with other regions when it
Customer Engagement comes to Tech competencies, they outperform EMEA

Index Findings and the US in terms of Performance and Channels. APAC

companies should focus on combining data from different
Based on survey responses, APAC brands
sources into a single customer profile, which is a powerful
appear to have the most mature customer
capability that allows brands to get the elusive “single,
engagement program in the world. While
360-degree view” of customers.
it’s not significantly higher than EMEA or the
US, it is in line with the digital-forward and For Teams, APAC companies appear to have a strong

mobile-first trends that we see in the region. experimentation and measurement culture, with key
metrics that support a holistic strategy. However, brands
Activate 27% can stand to improve their Culture competency by
collaborating with other departments more frequently.
Accelerate 52%
The Ace Competencies Where APAC Excels

Ace 21%
APAC
APAC US EMEA
US EMEA 37%
30% 28% 28%
21% 25%
Performance Channels

The Ace Competencies Where APAC Can Improve

US
APAC US EMEA APAC EMEA
31%
20% 21% 26% 25% 27%
Culture Data Ingestion
B R A ZE 41
 APAC
LinkAja Boosts First Transactions
With Onboarding Campaign and
Braze Alloys

Based in Indonesia, LinkAja is an integrated digital wallet capable of

supporting a range of use cases and focused on helping to bring financial
literacy and inclusion to all Indonesians. Customer engagement is a huge
priority for the LinkAja team, who turned to Braze to execute more complex
strategies, expand channels, more easily segment users, and automate
processes they used to handle manually. They were also able to integrate
directly with their tech stack, using Braze Alloys technology partners
Mixpanel and Looker to enable cross-functional collaboration and data
visualization, respectively. After making the switch, they set up their first
lifecycle campaign, which delivered an onboarding flow via email, in-app
messages, and push notifications in users’ first seven days. The campaign
achieved a 10% lift in recipients completing a transaction within the first 7
days and a 32% lift in users completing a transaction within the first 14 days.

32%
Tech Ace Factors Teams Ace Factors

Increase in Completed
Transactions During
Channels Data Objectives
the First 14 Days
Performance Orchestration Strategy

B R A ZE 42
 EMEA Strategies to Monetize EMEA Users

ACTIVATE ACCELERATE
Digital Engagement is Complicated
by Privacy Concerns Message them Take a multi-channel approach
Engaging EMEA users with just Engaging EMEA users via
Although previously more resistant to digital one channel* leads to: two channels** leads to:
engagement than their APAC and US counterparts,
EMEA consumers enthusiastically took to digital 10.2X More purchases 92% More purchases

experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. In

Rise in likelihood Rise in likelihood
fact, just two years ago, only one in five UK adults 9.6X to buy 54% to buy
shopped for clothing online—now it’s more like one
in three. In Germany, 35% of smartphone users now
ACE
are shopping via mobile weekly, while the Middle
East has seen a 14% increase in purchases made on
Take a cross-channel approach

digital channels this year.

Creating a cohesive customer By leveraging Content Cards,
One reason the region may be slightly behind experience for EMEA users across email, and in-app messages
multiple channels*** leads to: (the most effective channel
other parts of the world when it comes to digital combination for monetizing
adoption is heightened privacy and data concerns: EMEA users), brands can see a:
More purchases
73% of EMEA consumers say they use services that 36% per user
Rise in likelihood
promise strong data protection, such as encrypted Rise in likelihood 4X
emails and privacy-protecting search engines.
11% to buy
to buy

Brands operating in the home of GDPR need to

keep that concern top of mind as they develop their
*Compared to users receiving no messages
digital strategies in the region, as trust is a necessary **Compared to users receiving messages in just one channel
foundation for online engagement and revenue. ***With a cross-channel approach (including messages in both in-product and out-of-
product channels), compared to users receiving messages in any two channels
B R A ZE 43
 EMEA Team Collaboration is Strong, but Strategy
and Personalization Have Room to Grow
On the Teams side, EMEA has the lowest scoring Staffing and
Customer Engagement Strategy score. However, our survey reveals this regions’ brands

Index Findings are more collaborative with other departments, having the highest
Ace score (26%) in our Objectives competency and in terms of the
Although we do see a strong number of
percentage of brands (33%) that have a single definition of success
Ace companies in the region, the bulk of
across all teams.
EMEA brands fall into the index’s Accelerate
category, suggesting that they have further For Tech, EMEA brands’ biggest areas for growth are in

to go to get the full value out of their Personalization and Strategy. Based on the survey, they are more

customer engagement program. reliant than their US and APAC counterparts on customer-provided
info and past customer behavior. To further their efforts, EMEA
Activate 27%
brands should utilize real-time user engagement and send-time
optimization to better personalize their customer engagement.
Accelerate 55%

The Ace Competencies Where EMEA Excels

Ace 19%
EMEA APAC
EMEA US US
APAC 33%
26% 22% 29%
21% 20%
Culture Objectives

The Ace Competencies Where EMEA Can Improve

APAC
US 16%
US EMEA
EMEA APAC 9%
26% 7%
18% 24%
Personalization Strategy
B R A ZE 44
 EMEA
FREE NOW Uses Robust Customer
Journeys to Engage Riders and
Drivers Alike

Now active in 150+ European cities, German-based FREE NOW is a multi-

mobility platform offering the largest vehicle choice across Europe. To better
stand out in a crowded marketplace, FREE NOW wanted to evolve their
customer engagement strategy by moving from one-off campaigns to multi-
step, cross-channel journeys. For their drivers, they used the Braze Simple
Survey In-App Message feature to collect first-party data with an in-app
message survey that helps personalize each driver’s customer journey. For the

33%
riders, they built a rich cross-channel customer journey, complete with email,
SMS, and in-app messages that ingests live custom event data to provide
Boost in Rider
Engagement a richer, more relevant experience. The new customer journeys drove a 47%
boost in activation rate for the drivers and a 33% lift in riders starting sessions.

47%
Increase in
Tech Ace Factors Teams Ace Factors

Driver Activation Channels Orchestration Culture Experimentation

Rate
Personalization Objectives

B R A ZE 45
 US Strategies to Engage, Monetize and Retain US Users

ACTIVATE ACCELERATE
Today’s Landscape is a
Challenging One Message them Take a multi-channel approach
Engaging US users with just Engaging with US users via two
Even though US consumers are online one channel* leads to: channels** leads to:
oriented—31% of adults even say they are
“constantly online”—they are also the most fickle, 13.4X More purchases 4.3X More purchases

hardest to engage, and least likely to make a

purchase. While brands understand US customers 4.2X More sessions 3.1X More sessions

expect to engage digitally, many companies still Longer average Longer average
have a distance to go when it comes to providing
3.1X user lifetimes 2.2X user lifetimes

the experiences these particular users crave.

ACE

As optimism grew throughout 2021, we saw an Take a cross-channel approach

increase in spending, both in-store and online,
Creating a cohesive customer By leveraging SMS, email,
as areas recovered from the first few waves of the experience for US users across in-app messages, and mobile
COVID-19 pandemic. The most successful brands multiple channels*** leads to: push (the most effective channel
combination for boosting US users’
in the region leaned into their differentiators,
25% More purchases engagement), brands can see:
worked hard to communicate their value, and
created consumer-first experiences. And as we
40% More sessions 11.2X More sessions
head into 2022, brands will need to continue these
strategies if they want to win and retain users in a Longer average
19% user lifetimes
challenging environment.
*Compared to users receiving no messages
**Compared to users receiving messages in just one channel
B R A ZE ***With a cross-channel approach (including messages in both in-product and 46

out-of-product channels), compared to users receiving messages in any two channels

 US Tech Competency Is Strong for US Brands,
but Real Needs Remain Regarding Teams
US-based companies are generally strongest on Tech competencies
Customer Engagement and primed to keep improving, with 39% of US-based companies

Index Findings planning to increase investment in customer engagement in 2022.

Two of their top-performing competencies, Data Ingestion and
While some US companies are ahead of Personalization, reflect the way many brands use single-customer
the game, the US is the least mature of all profiles and propensity/behavioral modeling to personalize messages,
three regions when it comes to customer including context based on real-time and past engagement.
engagement. In fact, the US has both the
The biggest opportunities for the region sit within the Teams
fewest number of Accelerate and Ace brands
competencies since—except for Culture—all other competencies
and the highest number of Activate brands,
are below the average for our Global Index. These results suggest
highlighting the need for additional focus
companies should prioritize ensuring they have cross-functional
and investment from brands in the region.
teams owning customer engagement while expanding their
measurement of engagement and upleveling their strategy to focus
Activate 31%
on customer behavior and company strategy.

The Ace Competencies Where the US Excels

Accelerate 50%

US EMEA APAC US APAC

Ace 19% 31% 27% 26%
EMEA
25% 24%
18%
Data Ingestion Personalization

The Ace Competencies Where the US Can Improve

EMEA APAC EMEA APAC

US US
33% 29% 27% 27%
22% 21%
B R A ZE Objectives Orchestration 47
 US
BEES Solves Customer Pain
Points by Delivering Seamless,
Personalized Experiences

A part of the AB InBev family, BEES supports digital transformation for

small- and medium-size retailers and helps them more efficiently purchase
AB InBev products (like Budweiser and Corona) all around the world. Along
with a self-service mobile app, BEES provides retailers with insights and
promotion strategies to help them thrive. For one of their first campaigns using
Braze, BEES wanted to solve a huge customer pain point—order tracking. By
leveraging Liquid personalization fueled by Braze Alloys partner Segment, a
customer data platform (CDP), BEES was able to send timely push notifications
and in-app messages that alerted customers to status updates. The ability
to stream data between these solutions and support a high number of
personalized touchpoints led to a 15% decrease in the number of order
support and product information request tickets that were opened.

15%
Decrease in Order
Tech Ace Factors Teams Ace Factors

Support and Product

Info Request Tickets
Opened Data Personalization Objectives Strategy

B R A ZE 48
Conclusion

As Brands’ Customer Engagement Efforts Mature, They Drive

Better Engagement, Higher Retention, and More Revenue
While just messaging your customers is still powerful, the most successful brands rely
on robust, cross-channel strategies that deliver the right message at the right time to
get the full benefit of their customer engagement programs.

In Order to Overcome New Privacy Challenges, Brands Should

Move to the Exclusive Use of Zero- and First-Party Data
Not only is third-party data on the way out, it’s just not as accurate or actionable as
the data you get directly from your customers. To get ahead of the evolving privacy
landscape, brands need to create data-collection strategies that respect their
customers’ wants and needs.

While Many Brands Are Rising to Today’s Challenges, We See

Major Opportunities When it Comes to Tech and Teams
As customer engagement programs become more robust, brands must focus on both
setting shared goals and making sure they count how they measure up to those goals.
The best efforts are cross-departmental, comprehensive, and real-time data-driven.

Get in touch to learn more

BRAZE.COM/CONNECT-WITH-SALES

B R A ZE 49
Methodology: Overview

Survey Data Customer Data

The Braze Customer Engagement Survey was conducted by For this analysis, Braze pulled anonymized and aggregated
Wakefield Research (www.wakefieldresearch.com) among behavioral data from over 795 brands across our US, APAC, and
1,500 Marketing Executives in markets with a minimum title EU clusters to analyze app activity, message engagement, and
of VP, working at B2C companies with an annual revenue of purchasing trends by industry. These statistics span January
$10+ million across 14 countries: Australia, France, Germany, 1–December 31, 2021 and include data from over 5.4 billion
Indonesia, Japan, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, user profiles and 52 sub-industries. The raw data has been
Spain, Sweden, Thailand, UAE/Dubai, the United Kingdom cleaned using volume and company count checks so that
and the United States. The survey was conducted between no one brand or group of brands is over-represented. For all
October 27th and November 8th, 2021, using an email purchase- and messaging-related stats, only brands tracking
invitation and an online survey. the relevant information have been included so as not to skew
the analysis. All uplift figures greater than 100% are rounded to
the nearest decimal point, and all uplift figures below 100% are
rounded to the nearest whole percent. When comparing two
rounded numbers, percent change metrics are calculated as
the difference between the two numbers after rounding.

B R A ZE 50
METHODOLOGY: CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT INDEX

Survey Data Customer Data

The Braze Customer Engagement Index measures brands’ The Braze Ace Technology, Teams, and Business Impact
sophistication across 12 competencies. For this analysis, the metrics were measured by selecting the top 50th percentile
Braze customer engagement survey asked global brands to of brands compared to the full data set (and within a given
describe their approach to these competencies in a series of industry in the report’s industry-specific sections) in terms
twelve questions. Each answer earned respondents 0-2 points, of likelihood of a user making a purchase, likelihood of a
for a total of 0-12 points for Organizational Maturity and 0-12 buyer making a repeat purchase, average sessions per user,
points for Technological Maturity. and average user lifetime for the period of January 1, 2021 to
December 31, 2021. For industries where purchase behavior
This survey-related Ace data is highlighted on pages 9 is less often used as a key performance indicator (financial
(Revenue Goal Achievement), 12, 13, 16, 17, 19, 23, 27, 31, 35, 41, services, media and entertainment, and health and wellness),
44, and 47. only average sessions per user and average user lifetime
were considered.

This Braze Ace-related data is highlighted on pages 9 (Ace

Technology, Teams, and Impact), 21, 25, 29, 33, and 37.

B R A ZE 51
METHODOLOGY: KEY DEFINITIONS

General Definitions Consumer Data Types

Average user lifetime: This is defined as the time elapsed in days between Zero-party data: Information shared directly by
the user’s first session date and their last session date. consumers; this often includes message channel
Buyers (%): This is defined as the % of users who made at least one subscriptions and survey responses, among other data
purchase. types.

Customer lifetime value (LTV): This metric, also known as average revenue First-party data: Information gathered by brands with
per purchaser, is defined as total spend in dollars divided by the total express user consent; this often includes data on product
number of buyers. preferences, browsing behavior, etc.
Purchases per buyer: This is defined as total purchases divided by total Third-party data: Information collected by parties
buyers.
without a direct relationship with the users (and often
Purchases per user: This is defined as total purchases divided by without user permission).
total users.

Sessions per user: This is defined as total sessions divided by total buyers.

Repeat Buyers (%): This is defined as the % of first-time buyers

(repeat buyers divided by total buyers) who make at least
one more purchase.

Retention: All retention numbers are calculated as the number of users

who open the digital property on or after day N divided by the number of
users with a first session on day 0, multiplied by 100%. This is a standard
rolling retention methodology. We conducted these analyses according to
each user’s first session date (day 0) and their last session date (day N). The
difference between these two dates is the number of days that the user
was retained in total. The user is counted as retained for all days between
their first and last session, regardless of how often they actually return to the
digital property within that range.

B R A ZE 52
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