Joint Study Analyses Pioneering Use of Technology to Drive Creativity and Commercial Success from World’s Top Brands

Braze (Nasdaq: BRZE), the comprehensive customer engagement platform, and WARC, the global authority on marketing effectiveness, today released a new report which lifts the lid on how some of the world’s most admired brands are pioneering the way technology is used as a hidden enabler for creativity, driving standout customer engagement.

“The Invisible Enabler: Unlocking the Creative Potential of Technology” taps into the highly respected WARC rankings, the views of those judging the world’s top creative awards, and new empirical data. It delves into award-winning creative campaigns from brands such as Adidas, Burger King, Lexus, Nike, Snickers, Spotify, sharing learnings around five key themes that explore the magic of tech, creativity, and customer engagement.

“Brand marketing has entered a new era – for too long, there’s been a false tension between creativity and performance,” said Mariam Asmar, VP of Strategic Consulting at Braze. “The work showcased in this report shows that art and science are natural partners in successful customer engagement, and technology can be the catalyst that frees great ideas by removing complexity and barriers to effective execution. Now, marketing teams must examine what's preventing them from hitting the sweet spot that combines great brand messaging with effective bottom-line outcomes, removing the obstacles to creative effectiveness.”

The five themes explore the various ways brands have switched up their customer engagement strategies in the past years, including:

Top of the Ladder Technology

The Creative Effectiveness Ladder - a framework created by WARC and Cannes Lions shows that brands are driving customer loyalty by using technology in customer acquisition and engagement campaigns. The ladder categorizes the six types of effects that creative marketing produces, starting with the ‘influential idea’, through to becoming an ‘Enduring Icon’ once sustained commercial outcomes have been achieved.

Data Inspires the Creative

This theme demonstrates how data used holistically can be the creative foundation for any great campaign. Consumers today demand unique and personalized experiences, therefore using data, especially first-party data, enables marketers and advertisers not just to replace existing capabilities, but to unlock new ones with more creative applications than ever before.

The Memorable Middle

The path to purchase has evolved in a post-pandemic world. Consumers require a seamless and rewarding omnichannel experience that engages them throughout the purchase journey, which is best achieved through mixing both the physical and the digital.

Collapsing the Funnel

Brands' marketing and performance teams are working more closely together. WARC’s 2022 Marketer Toolkit showed that 60% of marketers say that more brand marketing is now taking place through digital channels. This collaboration can build stronger consumer relationships and facilitate more personalized customer experiences.

From Gaming to the Metaverse

With marketers experimenting with AR and VR, consumers expect new platforms to be engaging. By taking inspiration from the gaming industry, brands can start to build relationships through Martech with current and potential customers, further building brand recognition and driving effectiveness.

Imaad Ahmed, Head of WARC Advisory EMEA, added, “COVID-19 undoubtedly spurred innovation. We’ve seen a considerable increase in Martech spending as part of digital transformation. That has been motivated, in some measure, by noticeable shifts in consumer expectations and behaviors post-pandemic. The insights from this report show that customer experience is a key and necessary priority for all brands - some of whom can now draw insights from a wealth of data but all of whom must prepare for significant shifts in regulations and the availability of third-party data. This has led many brands to strive towards building stronger first-party relationships with their customers - a move which will bolster their long-term growth prospects.”

Read the full report here: https://www.warc.com//content/article/warc-exclusive/the-invisible-enabler--unlocking-the-creative-potential-of-technology/en-gb/147514

About Braze

Braze is a leading comprehensive customer engagement platform that powers interactions between consumers and brands they love. With Braze, global brands can ingest and process customer data in real time, orchestrate and optimize contextually relevant, cross-channel marketing campaigns and continuously evolve their customer engagement strategies. Braze has been recognized as one of Fortune’s 2022 Best US and UK Workplaces in Technology, Fortune’s 2022 Best US and UK Workplaces for Women, and Fortune's 2022 Best US Workplace for Millennials. The company is headquartered in New York with offices in Austin, Berlin, Chicago, London, San Francisco, Singapore, and Tokyo. Learn more at braze.com.

About WARC

WARC – The global authority on marketing effectiveness

For over 35 years WARC has been powering the marketing segment by providing rigorous and unbiased evidence, expertise and guidance to make marketers more effective. WARC services include 100,000+ case studies, best practice guides, research papers, special reports, advertising trend data, news & opinion articles, as well as awards, events and advisory services. WARC operates out of London, New York, Singapore and Shanghai, servicing a community of over 75,000 marketers in more than 1,300 companies across 100+ markets and collaborates with 50+ industry partners.

WARC is an Ascential company. Ascential delivers specialist information, analytics and ecommerce optimisation platforms to the world's leading consumer brands and their ecosystems.

Its world-class businesses improve performance and solve problems for its customers by delivering immediately actionable information combined with visionary longer-term thinking across Digital Commerce, Product Design and Marketing. Ascential also serves customers across Retail & Financial Services.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release may contain “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the “safe harbor” provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including but not limited to, statements regarding the anticipated benefits that customer engagement strategies or the Braze platform or other technology may provide brands. These forward-looking statements are based on Braze’s current assumptions, expectations and beliefs, and are subject to substantial risks, uncertainties, assumptions and changes in circumstances that may cause Braze’s actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Further information on potential factors that could affect Braze’s results is included in the Braze’s Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended July 31, 2022, filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange on September 13, 2022, and Braze’s other public filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange. The forward-looking statements included in this press release represent Braze’s views only as of the date of this press release, and Braze assumes no obligation, and does not intend to update these forward-looking statements, except as required by law.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221003005501/en/