LTR 19: Conference recap

Nearly all market-leading brands today know that they’re operating in the age of the customer. Customer expectations have never been higher, brands have never been accessible across so many devices, and switching costs have never been lower. What many leading brands have not considered, however, is the weight of change that is required to succeed in this customer-driven era. Becoming a customer-obsessed brand is not just a transition, it requires a complete transformation.

For customer engagement platform Braze, the core of this transformation is rethinking business processes and values with the focus of becoming more humane. It was with this in mind that industry-leading marketers and product managers gathered in New York City for Braze’s annual conference, LTR (Long Term Relationships) on October 29th.

To celebrate LTR 2019’s official theme of "Humanity in Action," the Braze team took to the stage to present their inaugural Torchie Award, created to recognize brands who have gone above and beyond when it comes to leveraging technology and forward-looking strategies to better engage and serve their audiences. In other words, brands that have found success in the customer-led era. For the award, Braze honored eCommerce trailblazer Overstock, acknowledging the development and execution of Overstock’s cutting edge, real-time personalization strategy.

In an October press release, Overstock described the way in which they had developed a marketing technology framework, which includes mParticle as CDP and Braze as customer engagement platform, that made it possible to deliver curated messaging via email and web display in real time, personalized at the user-level. Overstock Retail CMO, JP Knab, described, “I’m proud of the work our team has developed and look forward to the continued innovation to come. Congrats to the team on such an accomplishment and on the Torchie!”

Industry veterans from Tidal, mParticle, Segment, and Snowflake took to the stage for a conversation on how brands can leverage technology to deliver a more “human” experience for their customers. To open, Sandra Cuya, VP of Retention & CRM at music streaming service TIDAL, shared their aim of harnessing data in a creative manner to evoke an emotional experience through music and personalized recommendations. Doing so, however, is not always easy. Sandra recognized that to drive discovery in a way that feels human, it’s important to have not only a marketing technology infrastructure in place that allows you to activate the right messaging in real time, but also a ‘data culture’ that empowers teams across the organization to leverage data to make the best business decisions. Seconding Sandra’s point, Paul Mander, VP of Professional Services at mParticle, discussed the ways in which foundational marketing technology, such as Customer Data Platforms, can democratize access to data, while also allowing teams to maintain granular control over where data is sent.

To make it easier for brands to leverage technology to deliver humanistic experiences, Braze also announced an expansion of its Alloys program. The Alloys program was first introduced in 2018 with 50 carefully curated technology partners, including mParticle. The initial rollout made it easier to share data between tools to deliver personalized messaging across channels. For the next iteration of the program, Braze has expanded Alloys to feature 40 leading Agencies, including Ogilvy, Slalom, Digitas, Iris, and more.

The goal of the expansion is to create a framework that makes it easier for brands to implement technology and conceptual campaigns that drive sustainable, long-term growth.

Interested in learning more about Customer Data Platforms and how they can be used to unify customer data and activate it across channels in real time? Check out our eBook, Real time, real results.