New Research from Braze Reveals Critical Insights on Craft of Customer Engagement and How that Helps 85% of Top Brands Surpass their Revenue Goals

Braze (Nasdaq: BRZE), the leading customer engagement platform that empowers brands to Be Absolutely Engaging, today released its fourth annual Global Customer Engagement Review, examining customer engagement trends over the past year. The report dives into the evolving world of customer engagement, uncovering what marketers need to know—from the rise of new AI tools, to the challenges associated with supporting truly cohesive experiences across platforms and channels. Also included is the Braze Customer Engagement Index which assesses the maturity of brands in terms of their customer engagement activities—showing that 85% of brands that successfully embrace the craft of customer engagement to power first-party relationships exceeded their revenue goals in 2023.

“Today’s marketers are facing growing expectations from an increasingly connected consumer, who expects value in exchange for their attention,” said Astha Malik, Chief Business Officer of Braze. “Marketers are utilizing the power of AI to ignite creativity and craft personalized experiences that resonate with today’s consumer. And by tapping into valuable first-party data and fostering cross-functional collaboration, marketers can transform this data into captivating campaigns that build loyalty and growth.”

This year’s report uncovered key trends, including:

Marketers are embracing AI, but can use it to more effectively bridge the gap between creativity and ROI:

• Nearly all surveyed marketers (99%) are using AI in some capacity and are interested in further exploring its full potential. However, research found that marketers are also struggling with many areas where AI can help, particularly when it comes to creativity and strategy.
• Separately, a majority of marketers—98% to be exact—reported issues that prevent them from being more creative and strategic, with 41% of respondents claiming they lack the appropriate technology to execute creative ideas, and 40% citing difficulties demonstrating the ROI impact of creativity.
• The primary obstacles cited are spending excessive time on routine execution and tasks (42%) and an overemphasis on KPIs which restricts a focus on creativity (42%).
• Promising to see, many marketers recognize the promise of AI—79% of respondents applaud AI’s ability to automate routine tasks and free up time for creative thinking. Bridging the gap between creativity and ROI with AI can help marketers push boundaries while gaining a clearer view of their campaigns’ impact.

Creating personalized experiences requires a unified customer view and first-party data agility: