Forge 2020 Torchie Awards: Celebrating This Year’s Exceptional Achievements in Customer Engagement

At last year’s Long-Term Relationships (LTR) conference, Braze hosted our first ever Torchie Awards. These awards recognized brands and individuals who have gone above and beyond when it comes to using technology and forward-looking strategies to better engage and serve their audiences. During the ceremony, Braze spotlighted our most effective customers and partners, as well as individuals who have found innovative ways to leverage the Braze platform. Last year’s winners included:

• Paul Cater, CRM Tech Lead at Trainline for Rising Star of the Year
• IBM using Braze, Segment, and Amplitude for Partner Use Case of the Year
• Burger King’s Whopper Detour for Campaign of the Year
• Overstock for Customer of the Year

We were excited to host our second annual Torchie Award ceremony at Forge 2020 this year and recognize a new slate of Braze customers that have taken customer engagement to the next level. Let’s take a look at this year’s finalists—and winners!

Rising Star of the Year

The Rising Star of the Year award recognizes an up and coming individual who stands out as an exceptional user of the Braze platform and whose work leverages technology in thoughtful, effective ways to support better user relationships and stronger business outcomes. This year’s nominees are:

• Jackson Yomogida, Marketing Manager, Dave
• Jim Seesel, Senior Data Scientist, Grubhub
• Maddie Groves, Senior Lifecycle Marketing Manager, Quizlet
• Robert Wernick, Marketing Tech Lead, WorldRemit
• Xue Li Won, Mobile Marketing Analyst, Sephora SEA

The winner of the 2020 Rising Star of the Year? Robert Wernick at WorldRemit. Dubbed the “Braze Guy” by teammates, Wernick introduced deep linking, Content Cards, and segmentation to their efforts, improving the effectiveness of their campaigns.

Agency Partner Story of the Year

This category recognizes a brand and Braze Alloys agency partner that have worked together to unlock incredibly innovative and creative campaigns for some of the biggest brands in the world. These campaigns exemplify how our technology has inspired marketers. This year’s nominees are:

• Babylon and ActionRocket
• Birchbox and Notable Growth
• Opploans and FIVE
• Popeye’s and Notable Growth
• Soundcloud and Phiture

This year’s winner? Babylon and ActionRocket. Babylon created an interactive campaign using AMP for Email that achieved a 20% increase in engagement. To execute the campaign, Babylon leveraged Braze Alloy solutions partner ActionRocket to develop the best possible interactive experience across all email scenarios.

Tech Partner Use Case of the Year

This category recognizes a brand that is using Braze in tandem with one or more Braze Alloys technology partners in order to support a customer engagement ecosystem that can deliver exceptional experiences to their users. Congratulations to the following finalists for their achievements when it comes to maximizing the value that a partner integration can provide!

• Dropticket: Adjust, Branch.io, and Braze
• IBM: Braze, Amplitude, and Segment
• Luminary Media: Braze, mParticle, and Amplitude
• Pomelo Fashion: Branch.io, Braze, Segment, and Voucherify

The Tech Partner Use Case of the Year Torchie Award went to Pomelo for its use of Branch.io, Segment, and Voucherify in concert with Braze. Pomelo created a highly personalized messaging experience by steaming their user data into Segment, creating relevant messages in Braze, utilizing Brach deeplings to ensure users land on the app page or app store, and leveraging Voucherify to deliver personalized coupon codes that saw a 300% increase in conversion.

Campaign of the Year

The Campaign of the Year award recognizes a specific campaign carried out by a Braze customer that demonstrates strategic leadership and technical proficiency in the pursuit of stronger consumer/brand relationships. Congratulations to all the finalists in this category for crafting such sophisticated and creative marketing campaigns:

• Busuu: Your 2019 in Numbers
• Equinox: Milestone Messaging
• HBO Max: Converting Users From Trial to Paid
• Headspace: Free Headspace Plus Membership
• NASCAR: Shift to Virtual Racing
• WW: Transformation to Digital Workshops

And the Torchie for the Campaign of the Year goes to WW. In response to COVID-19, WW transformed their in-business studio to digital workshops. Using Braze, they were able to customize content and channels in order to send valuable messages to their members about the new setup. In six days, they stood up an entire virtual infrastructure to support their workshop membership base.

Customer of the Year

This category recognizes champion brands and industry leaders who have made innovative use of the Braze platform to support more human connections with their users. Congratulations to all of our finalists for the impressive, cutting-edge work they’ve been doing with Braze all year long!

• AB InBev
• Grindr
• Gympass
• Instacart
• Pizza Hut
• RetailMeNot

The 2020 Customer of the Year was Pizza Hut. Before migrating to Braze, Pizza Hut had a strong but inflexible email and SMS program. Within months of migrating to Braze, Pizza Hut launched the multi-armed bandit (MAB) machine learning multivariate test. These algorithms allowed them to test and optimize their email strategy in real time, leading to strong results.

Anything Else?

Looking to celebrate this year’s greatest achievements in customer engagement? Experience the Torchie Awards yourself by registering to attend our Forge 2020 conference.