Material Named a Runner-Up in 2023 Braze Torchie Awards for Agency Partner Story of the Year

Global strategy consultancy recognized for work as a Braze partner to unlock innovative and creative campaigns

LOS ANGELES – October 17, 2023 – Material, a global strategy and customer experience transformation consultancy, is pleased to announce it has been named runner-up in the Agency Partner Story of the Year category. The runner-up distinction highlights Material’s recent and transformative digital marketing campaign created in partnership with Braze and Whataburger, showcasing Material’s status as a leading loyalty and customer engagement partner.

Presented at Braze’s annual FORGE conference in New York City, The Torchie Awards are presented to select agencies, brands and individuals that effectively leverage the Braze technology platform with forward-looking strategies to better engage their target audience.

Material’s campaign for Whataburger was designed to accomplish three objectives: 1) boost sales and incremental visits during a traditionally slower period for QSRs, 2) optimize customer engagement and experience, and 3) improve the efficiency of operations with Braze technology. The solution included:

• Adapting Braze to enable survey capabilities that connected to customer preferences and delivered significant lift in engagement and sales.
• Creating custom thresholds by segmented and targeted campaigns that delivered millions in incremental sales, primarily by engaging occasional and disengaged guests.
• Incorporating deeper integration with the Customer Data Platform (CDP) partner, by testing multiple Braze canvas dimensions and optimizing performance to drive millions in sales through empathetic but insistent engagement through key lifecycle moments.

The campaign was successful in generating millions of dollars in incremental revenue, a significant lift in transactions and sales, and an increase in customer participation from occasional diners.

“This recognition from Braze spotlights our strategic and innovative work in delivering exceptional customer loyalty,” said Bill Kanarick, Material CEO. “It’s a testament to the kind of impact Material brings to clients across a variety of sectors, including the quick serve restaurant (QSR) space, where we are creating experiences fueled by deep human insights and enabled by modern technology.

“We’re proud to be recognized among the best-in-class for our partnership with Whataburger in the Agency Partner Story of the Year category,” said Sean Eidson, Material’s  VP of Strategy & Innovation. “We see this recognition as validation of our continued ability to adapt our loyalty and customer engagement strategies to meet the dynamic, evolving needs of our clients with powerful, customer-forward approaches that drive results.”

For more information about this work, please review the full case study here.

About Material

Material is a global strategy partner that combines deep human insights with modern technology – a proprietary Science + Systems approach that speeds engagement and growth for the world’s most recognizable brands and innovative companies. We design + build customer-centric business models and experiences to create transformative relationships between businesses and the people they serve. Learn more at www.materialplus.io.

About the Braze Torchie Awards

The annual Braze Torchie Awards celebrate the customers, partners and individuals within the Braze community who are building the future of customer engagement using the Braze platform by recognizing the achievements of leaders in the following nine categories: Brand of the Year, Torchie Team of the Year, Campaign of the Year, Rising Star of the Year, Marketing MVP of the Year, Best Data Application of the Year, Agency Partner Story of the Year, Tech Partner Use Case of the Year and Marketing Leader of the Year. Learn more at https://www.braze.com/resources/articles/2023-torchie-awards-winners.

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