Introducing 5 new Bonfire Community Groups
At the heart of customer engagement lies a fundamental truth: community matters. This principle drives brand loyalty and fosters shared experiences, and it’s no different for Braze! We are passionate about creating opportunities for you to connect, learn, and grow. In that spirit, we are excited to introduce Bonfire Community Groups—our first open groups designed to enhance your experience. Led by Braze team members, these new groups will focus on specific industries and roles, providing a dedicated space for members to connect and share insights. Similar to our Discussions, these groups will allow you to engage with fellow customer engagement professionals, discuss challenges, share ideas, and receive valuable feedback. Ready to learn more? Here are our new Bonfire Community Groups! Retail and eCommerce Join this group of Retail and eCommerce enthusiasts dedicated to enhancing customer engagement through innovative strategies, shared insights, and collaborative networking. Whether you’re a major brand or a small Shopify store, you’ll find others who share your passion for the Retail and eCommerce space. Financial Services Connect with Braze customers from across the financial services sector to share industry insights and discuss customer engagement strategies that foster trustworthy experiences. In a competitive landscape, it’s essential for brands to connect effectively with consumers on their individual journeys. This group is perfect for anyone in FinServ looking to learn from peers and find solidarity in shared challenges (and solutions!). Creative Collective This group is a space for innovators to explore and share creative strategies that push the boundaries of customer engagement. For too long, there’s been a misconception that creativity and performance are at odds. Research from WARC and Cannes Lions shows that the best brands drive customer acquisition, engagement, loyalty, and retention by leveraging award-winning, data-driven creative campaigns. Join this group to connect with others who are committed to marrying creativity with technology and setting new standards for innovation. Small but Mighty We’re bending the rules a bit with this one: Small but Mighty has technically existed since Bonfire’s inception. The big change? Now, anyone can join this group, which was previously private. By opening access, we hope even more small teams can leverage the collective power of the Bonfire Community and elevate their customer engagement strategies. Bonfire Expert Council While this group operates on a “request-to-join” basis, it plays a crucial role in shaping the future of Braze Bonfire! Apply to become a founding member and be instrumental in helping the community team build our roadmap, introduce new programs and features, and enhance the overall community experience. As a trusted member of the Bonfire Expert Council, you’ll also help answer questions, provide solutions, and share your expertise with the rest of the community. We envision these groups as just the beginning of many more to come. Visit the Community Groups page to find the group (or groups!) you’d like to join, and kick things off by posting a hello or sharing your thoughts on what you’d like to see in the future, or even a current challengeCommunity Groups you’re facing, or a question you have. If you’re interested in leading a Bonfire Community Group of your own, we want to hear from you! Reach out to us at community@braze.com , or mention one of our community managers in a reply on this post— MaggieBrennan, EmilyCalderon, and I are always here to help!Welcome to Braze Bonfire
Whether you’ve been a part of Bonfire since launch in 2019 or you’re just joining us, we’re so glad you’re here. Braze Bonfire is now a one-stop shop of customer engagement resources - strategies, best practices, feedback, and professional opportunities. Below are a few resources to check out to help you better navigate the Braze Bonfire community. Getting Started 1. Introduce Yourself - We want to get to know you. Head over to the Connection Lounge and introduce yourself. Complete the below and help us get to know you better. Learn more about how you can intro yourself from our Welcome to the Connection Lounge post. 2. Start a discussion or ask a question in The Forum. The Forum is the place to ask and answer all of those questions and discussions about customer engagement strategy, executing campaigns in Braze, and technical solutions for using Braze. 3. Share a campaign you’ve worked on or been inspired by in Campaigns That Made You Look. We know you build incredible customer engagement campaigns on the regular. Share something you’ve built in Braze with the community in Campaigns That Made You Look. Whether it’s a screenshot of a push notification you got, an email campaign you built, a creative SMS your team worked on, you name it - we want to see it. Friendly reminder that you should never share sensitive or confidential information. When in doubt, err on the side of caution. 4. Looking to hire talent or to expand your team - let us know about it in The Job Board. Great talent is critical to executing great customer engagement strategies. If you have an opening on your team or simply want to search open opportunities, post about it in the Job Board. You’ll be prompted to provide a location, description, and salary range for the job you’re posting about. None of those are required but are suggested as a way to help both those seeking new opportunities as well as those filling positions to quickly understand where and what the opportunity is. Helpful documents to review as you get started: Community Guidelines Terms of Use Guide to Ranks FAQs Privacy Policy Why “bonfire,” you ask? To us, a bonfire is an invitation to gather together and share our stories. It serves as an informal yet intentional setting where we can learn, share, and grow together. The more people who contribute to a bonfire, the greater and the brighter it burns… so be sure to contribute and get involved! 🔥Welcome to the New and Improved Braze Bonfire!
Hey Bonfire friends! You may notice things look a little different around here. We took your feedback over the last year to heart and have been hard at work behind the scenes to make your experience even better. These updates will make navigating our community simpler, more engaging, and a whole lot more fun.Follow the neon lights to Forge 2024
Big news, Bonfirers: get ready to go all in on customer engagement. This September, Forge is back for 2024 in a dazzling new place: Las Vegas! With success stories from big, innovative brands, tricks of the trade from industry experts, and networking opportunities galore, you’re sure to hit the inspiration jackpot. Forge is also the place to get certified, trained, and expand how you can use Braze in your day-to-day work. Come for the business, but stay for the fun—it’s not called the city that never sleeps for nothin’. We’ll keep the party going with activations, celebrations, and a few well-deserved awards. Mark your calendar for September 23-25, 2024, and check back in for a Bonfire-exclusive chance to roll the dice and attend Forge on us!Congratulations to the 2023 Torchie Awards winners
Congratulations to the Forge 2023 Torchie Awards Winners and Runner Ups! The annual Braze Torchie Awards is a celebration of the leading brands and marketers who are building the future of customer engagement. This year we’re pleased to recognize an exceptional class of award winners who are finding innovative ways to forge connections and strengthen relationships—one message at a time. We awarded eight total awards this year, six customer awards - Rising Marketing Star of the Year, Bonfire Community Leader, Marketing Leader of the Year, Creative Excellence Award, Collaborative Team of the Year, Campaign of the Year and two partner awards - Technology Partner of the Year and Solutions Partner of the Year. Customer Award Winners Rising Marketing Star of the Year Winner: Samara Halperin, Lifecycle Marketing Associate for Talkspace (Congratulations SamaraHalperin!) Bonfire Community Leader Winner: Kristijan Arsov, Lifecycle Marketing Manager for Lifesum (Congratulations Kristijan!) Marketing Leader of the Year Winner: Christine Miller, Senior Director, Global CRM Operations for Warner Bros. Discovery Creative Excellence Award Winner: Peacock Collaborative Team of the Year Winner: Grubhub Campaign of the Year Winner: Canva Partner Award Winners Technology Partner of the Year Winner: Census Solutions Partner of the Year Winner: Ogilvy To learn more about the winners and runner ups, check out the Torchie Awards Winners announcement HERE.Announcing the 2025 Torchie Awards Finalists
Announcing the 2025 Torchie Awards Finalists Every year, Braze honors the marketers and brands redefining what’s possible in customer engagement. Whether you’ve launched a killer campaign, driven real impact, or led with creativity and heart, we want to celebrate you. This year, we received over 270 outstanding submissions across 11 categories, and one thing is clear: the Braze community is leading the way. Your creativity, passion, and incredible stories inspired us. The results were so close in every category that this year, we’re doing something new to bring you into the selection process. Your Vote Matters: The People's Choice Awards Get ready to make your voice heard at Forge! For the first time ever, the community will select an additional winner for the People's Choice Award in two of our top categories: Campaign of the Year and Creative Excellence. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be sharing more about the finalists in these two categories, so you can get to know their stories and the impressive work they’ve done. At Forge, from September 29–September 30, you'll be able to cast your vote for your favorite, whether you're attending in Las Vegas or joining us for Forge Digital. Your vote will honor the teams and campaigns that have truly set a new standard for customer engagement. The People's Choice winners will be announced on the final day of Forge. Meet the 2025 Torchie Awards Finalists But first, it’s time to reveal all of the finalists for the 2025 Torchie Awards! Customer Awards Bonfire Community Leader of the Year This award recognizes an outstanding community member who is known for helping other Braze users in the Bonfire community. Our finalists are: Allan Heo (For Now Marketing) Daphné Leblanc (Spark Networks) Lior Peleg (HippoCampus Tech LTD) Manoj Kumar (Digitas) Ted Scott (Cognizant) Braze for Impact This award recognizes companies that have used Braze to create positive social change within their communities. The finalists are: Boys and Girls Club of America iFood Venmo Volo Sports Campaign of the Year This award recognizes campaigns that show strategic leadership and technical skill to build stronger relationships with customers. This year's finalists are: HBO Max: Paris Summer Olympics Ibotta: Project Egg RappiCard: Legacy SoFi: Invest Milestones Wendy's: Fresh Picks - March Madness Collaborative Team of the Year This award celebrates teams that have successfully worked across different departments and disciplines to create best-in-class campaigns. The finalists are: Crunchyroll HBO Max Jump REA Group Sephora SoFi Creative Excellence This award honors teams that use the Braze platform to create innovative, original messaging, and unique customer experiences. Our finalists for the year are: ClassPass: Best of ClassPass HBO Max: Pre-finale IAM McDonald's: Unbagged RappiCard: Rosca SoFi: Money Moves Marketing Leader of the Year This award honors marketing executives who demonstrate excellence in leadership and customer engagement. The finalists for 2025 are: Jason Feldman, Senior Director, Customer Experience at BEES US Josh Hanson, Associate Director - Growth Marketing at Optus Sport Maria Bonello, Subscriber Engagement Director at MGM+, Prime Video & Amazon MGM Studios Melissa Neikirk, Director of Lifecycle at Remitly Pedro Solís Cámara, Head of Growth at RappiCard Rising Marketing Star This award recognizes exceptional new users of the Braze platform who show great promise and use technology to support stronger customer relationships. The finalists are: Divyanshu Pandey, Associate, CRM at Chegg Ellie Ledwith, Sports Content Deputy Manager at bet365 Lindsey Spillman, Senior Specialist, CRM at Wendy's Maxim Radoczy, Lifecycle Marketing Lead, Engagement at Canva Nicholas Baltovski, Lifecycle Marketing Manager at Venmo Partner Awards Partner Campaign of the Year This category recognizes a partner who delivered a groundbreaking campaign with Braze and set new standards in creativity and customer engagement. The finalists are: AKQA, for KFC Australia Dwarf, for Spenn (Norwegian and Strawberry hotels) Publicis Groupe, for McDonald's US VML, for Pizza Hut Service Partner of the Year This award celebrates a service partner who significantly advanced their Braze practice through comprehensive training and innovation to markedly improve business outcomes. Our 2025 finalists are: Marketing Decisions Merkle Stitch VML Technology Partner of the Year This award goes to a technology/ISV partner that has enhanced Braze through key integrations and collaboration, benefiting our team and our customers. The finalists are: AWS Contentsquare Segment Snowflake Transformation Partner of the Year This award honors a partner whose innovative solutions have transformed a single client’s business and drastically enhanced their customer experience capabilities. Our finalists are: Deloitte Digital ANZ, for Foxtel Ragnarok, for Hand & Stone Stitch, for Taco Bell TELUS Digital, for White Castle Ready to see who takes home the Torchie? Join us at Forge to celebrate all the finalists, learn from the best in the industry, and cast your vote for the People's Choice Award. Whether you're a long-time member of the community or just getting started, Forge is where you’ll gain the insight, inspiration, and support to stand out by using your creativity in new ways.Meet Elle @ Braze: Our Employee Resource Group for Women at Braze
Elle is the Braze Employee Resource Group dedicated to empowering women across Braze and our wider community. It is our mission to empower women and their allies through a platform aimed at advancing personal and professional growth opportunities.Get to know our 2025 Torchie Awards finalists
The competition for the Torchie Awards was fierce this year, and our finalists represent the top tier in a field crowded with creativity. Let’s dive into the stories of our finalists for four categories: Bonfire Community Leader of the Year, Rising Marketing Star, Marketing Leader of the Year and Braze for Impact. Bonfire Community Leader of the Year This award recognizes a community member who stands out for helping other Braze users. We are continually impressed by the passion, dedication, and collaboration in the Braze Bonfire community. You all really look out for each other, and bring a spirit of innovation and desire to grow in everything you do. Let’s meet our finalists! Allan Heo, Founder & CEO at For Now Marketing Allan, a 2024 runner-up for Bonfire Community Leader of the Year, is a dedicated Braze professional who empowers the marketing community. As a Badge, Discussion, and Solutions Leader, he's a prolific contributor to the discussion boards, sharing educational resources and guides daily. Daphné Leblanc, Director of Lifecycle Marketing & CRM at Spark Networks As a Bonfire Marketer of the Month and a tenured Braze user, Daphné empowers her peers on their journey with Braze. During her popular Ask Me Anything session on Bonfire, she shared tactical ways to center personalization in a core lifecycle marketing strategy and expanded on trends from the 2025 Customer Engagement Review. Lior Peleg, Co-Owner at HippoCampus Tech LTD Lior is on a mission to create tools and content useful to all Braze users—and as a member of Braze Bonfire, he doesn't gatekeep! He's an active contributor to the discussion boards, sharing his expertise and valuable resources for the community to leverage. Manoj Kumar, Technical Lead at Digitas This is the second year in a row that Manoj has been a finalist for the Bonfire Community Leader of the Year, for good reason! Manoj consistently contributes to Bonfire, and is leader in Badges, Solutions, and Discussions. Whether he’s troubleshooting a bit of Liquid on someone’s post or helping them to understand how to push the boundaries of Canvas, Manoj is always willing to share his expertise. Ted Scott, Sr. Solution Architect, Braze at Cognizant A long time Braze expert, Ted is extremely active on the Bonfire Community, both in answering questions and helping fellow community members out with problems big and small. He’s also passionate about the ever expanding Braze ecosystem of careers, and helps to boost and amplify roles posted on the Bonfire Job Board. Rising Marketing Star This award recognizes exceptional new users of the Braze platform who show great promise and use technology to support stronger customer relationships. While they might be new to customer engagement or to Braze, they are no stranger to success! Here’s a peek into their stories. Divyanshu Pandey, Associate, CRM at Chegg Divyanshu, an exceptional early-career marketing technologist, earned four Braze certifications in one year and created automation scripts and validation checklists that have saved hours of manual work and become best practices across teams. Ellie Ledwith, Sports Content Deputy Manager at bet365 Ellie played a critical role in her company's transition to Braze from outdated tools, leading the effort to create a complex and dynamic email footer system and training over 100 staff members. Lindsey Spillman, CRM Specialist at Wendy’s In just over a year, Lindsey transformed the CRM program at Wendy’s, increasing campaigns from 15 to over 50 unique touchpoints per month and achieving a 66% increase in loyalty sales year-over-year. Maxim Radoczy, Lifecycle Marketing Lead, Engagement at Canva Despite a lack of direct management experience, Maxim launched Canva’s first "Next Best Action" model, which delivered a 55% uplift in engagement, and is now leading an initiative that incorporates predictive models and generative AI. Nicholas Baltovski, Lifecycle Marketing Manager at Venmo Nicholas went from no experience in lifecycle marketing to leading some of Venmo's most impactful programs, delivering millions in incremental profit and getting promoted twice in two years. Marketing Leader of the Year This award honors marketing executives who demonstrate excellence in leadership and customer engagement. They’re taking their team to new heights and their strategy to the next level, and have the results to prove it. See for yourself! Jason Feldman, Senior Director, Customer Experience at BEES US Jason championed the adoption of Braze to digitize operations across 26 countries, using advanced solutions like a dynamic email template that saves over 125 hours per month. Josh Hanson, Associate Director - Growth Marketing at Optus Sport Josh transformed the company's lifecycle marketing from a fragmented function into a strategic, data-driven engine, leading to a 50% increase in offers converted via Braze and a 5% increase in minutes watched. Maria Bonello, Subscriber Engagement Director at MGM+ As a solo marketer, Maria built MGM+'s customer engagement program from the ground up, engineering a robust automation system using Connected Content and APIs to deliver real-time, dynamic messaging at scale. Melissa Neikirk, Director of Lifecycle at Remitly Melissa's empathetic and experimental approach to lifecycle marketing led to a 400x increase in daily email click-through rates and the creation of a digitized, full-year customer journey map that has been instrumental for cross-functional teams. Pedro Solís Cámara, Head of Growth at RappiCard As Head of Growth, Pedro created a unified vision that integrated growth, engagement, and financial performance, leading to a 40% increase in portfolio value and a 70% improvement in retention. Braze for Impact This award recognizes companies that have used the power of Braze to create positive social change within their communities. In addition to being recognized at our flagship event Forge, the winner of this award will also be able to direct a $10,000 grant from the Braze for Social Impact Fund to the charity of their choice. Boys and Girls Club of America Boys and Girls Club of America completely reimagined their internal and external communications with Braze, helping them improve their CEO email open rate by 5% and drive a 61% increase in email revenue from critical fundraising campaigns. iFood iFood used Braze to engage delivery drivers in two social impact initiatives: "My High School Diploma," a program aimed at completing high school and enabling drivers to enter higher education, and "Decola," which is an online course platform. This platform offers learning options for iFood's internal topics, as well as entrepreneurship, financial education, workplace safety, delivery safety, motorcycle maintenance, among others. Over the past year, iFood engaged more than 370,000 delivery drivers in the education initiative, with the educational platform on the app recording over 1 million course completions. Braze was instrumental in providing strategic, segmented, and automated communications, saving iFood's team time while enabling deeper and smarter data and strategy analysis. Venmo Venmo’s Small Business Grant initiative used Braze to generate over 150 million impressions, driving incremental business sign-ups and 50,000 grant applications to support small businesses from historically excluded communities. Volo Sports Through Canvas flows, Volo introduced new players to its charitable arm, the Volo Kids Foundation, driving a 41% volunteer recruitment rate and helping provide free youth sports programs to over 70,000 kids. Ready to see who takes home the Torchie? Join us at Forge to celebrate all the finalists, learn from the best in the industry, and cast your vote for the People's Choice for Creative Excellence and the People’s Choice for Campaign of the Year. Whether you're a long-time member of the community or just getting started, Forge is where you’ll gain the insight, inspiration, and support to stand out by using your creativity in new ways.
Insights from Our Recent “Favorite Marketing Channel” Survey
Why We Ran the Survey Understanding which channels resonate most with your audience is crucial. By surveying dashboard users, we aimed to uncover favorite consumer marketing channels. Survey Results: Top Channels 1. Email emerged as the clear favorite, with 38% of responders selecting it as their preferred channel. Notably: - The leading industries represented were Retail, Media, and Technology. 2. Push Notifications ranked second, with 29% of total responses: - Retail, Media, and Tech again topped the industry representation. 3. In-app messaging/in-browser messaging was the third favorite, with 19% of responses: - The leading industries were Media, Technology, and Financial Services Actionable Channel Insights for Customers Below are some recommendations to get the most out of your channel mix: Prioritize email marketing: As the clear favorite and the most perennial marketing channel, focus on enhancing your email marketing strategies. A few ways to ensure you’re always optimizing and personalizing your email campaigns: Segmentation: Go beyond basic demographic segmentation by tailoring your messages based on your users’ behaviors for campaigns that resonate. Dynamic content: Take personalization a step further with customized product recommendations, special offers based on what your customers have recently engaged with on your site or app, share location-based event recommendations or regional products, and use real-time updates to share timely promotions. Testing and Experimentation: Experiment with subject lines, layouts, imagery, etc, to optimize email performance with A/B testing. Test sending emails at different times to find the optimal timing for your audience, and test different email frequencies to find the sweet spot for your audience. Clear CTAs: Avoid overused CTAs like "Learn More" and stick to action-oriented, specific language in your CTAs. Monitor engagement metrics: Track your open rate, click-thru rates, and conversion rates and use insights from these metrics to refine your email strategy continuously. Leverage Push Notifications: Push notifications are a powerful way to reach your audience directly on their devices, delivering relevant messages that capture attention and prompt immediate action with real-time alerts on web, mobile, wearable devices, and more. Explore ways to integrate Push into your marketing mix and optimize. Use contextual messaging: Send push notifications based on user context, such as location or time of day. For example, if a user is near a store location, send a notification about a special offer available only at that location. Rich media notifications: Use rich media like images or videos in your push notifications to capture attention. Explore in-app message or in-browser message opportunities: In-app or in-browser messaging is an effective channel for engaging your users at critical, timely moments while they are in your app or on your website. Guided help: Use in-app messaging to reduce friction and enhance the user experience with messages to help users navigate your app or website and discover new features, content, products and more! Gamification: Use progress bars or achievement badges to encourage users to complete specific actions or engage more deeply with your platform. Feedback: Use in-app message surveys to create feedback loops, asking users for their preferences on features or content. Surveys provide valuable insights and data to support future improvements – like the survey that powered this post! Did you know: If your brand already has the BrazeSDK integrated into your app or website, you have access to in-app or in-browser messaging! Use SMS/MMS to connect with your customers: The personal nature of SMS/MMS fosters a sense of connection and urgency, enabling brands to connect with customers on a more personal level. Deliver time-sensitive information, promotions, and updates directly to your users' mobile devices to drive quick action. Rich media in MMS: Use MMS to send rich media, like images, videos, or GIFs, to capture attention and drive higher engagement rates. Feedback: Encourage two-way communication by allowing users to reply to your SMS messages to gather feedback, answer questions, or even conduct surveys, creating a more interactive experience. Don’t sleep on WhatsApp: WhatsApp is the most popular mobile messaging app in the world, with over 2 billion monthly active users and heavy usage in Latin America, Asia Pacific, and Europe. WhatsApp is integrated into the everyday lives of consumers, making it perfect for marketers looking to connect with customers in a way that feels seamless and authentic. Two-way messaging: WhatsApp's unique capability of two-way conversational messaging is an effective way to drive users back to your app, for example, to complete onboarding, update their account, or conduct promotional campaigns. Content Cards - Your channel for app or website banners: In a separate survey, we recently asked Content Cards customers their most frequent use case for Content Cards. The number one response: As an app or website banner. Content Cards also act as a notification center, a promotions feed, an onboarding center, and more! To maximize engagement, leading brands use cross-channel campaigns that integrate multiple channels, especially combining in-product and out-of-product channels to reach users wherever they are! Research and experiment to find the right channel mix for your brand. Conclusion By understanding the channel preferences of your audience, you can create more effective and engaging campaigns that resonate. Thank you for being part of the Braze community. We look forward to hearing how you implement these findings in your marketing efforts!
