What we're talking about this month — building great loyalty programs, key Braze updates, automating your campaign process, and more! ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏    ͏      Welcome to the February edition of Cutting Edge: the monthly newsletter for marketers who use Braze! Each month, we'll be sharing our knowledge to help you get the most out of Braze and beyond. What we're talking about this month: 💌 Loving your customers with great loyalty programs 📌 Braze tips & tricks 🛠️ The most relevant updates from Braze’s January & February releases 🪡 Resources you can use to hone your craft STITCH IN TIME Loyalty Wins Big at the Super Bowl ☕ You can’t talk about MarTech trends in February without mentioning the Super Bowl. It’s the biggest stage in marketing, 137.7 million viewers tuned in, brands paid $8 million for a 30-second spot, and 57 commercials aired during the game. But beyond the ads, hundreds of brands found ways to capitalize on the cultural moment without spending millions. At Stitch, like everyone else, we had opinions on the game (Go Birds!), the best and worst ads, the halftime show, and more. But in my opinion, the real Super Bowl winner wasn’t a brand that bought a game-time ad. It was Starbucks. Rather than competing in the in-game ad frenzy, Starbucks played a different game. The morning after the Super Bowl, they offered a free small coffee to Starbucks Rewards members. No big-budget commercial, just two strategically placed TV spots (we see you avoiding the in-game price tag), plus a simple, well-timed reward that resonated with millions of tired football fans. And that’s the power of a well-executed loyalty strategy. It’s not just about points or perks; it’s about anticipating customer needs and creating meaningful touchpoints. The best loyalty programs make members feel seen and valued, turning everyday interactions into brand-building moments. Starbucks showed that winning the Super Bowl isn’t just about making a splash. It’s about making a connection. Instead of spending millions to get attention, they reinforced customer relationships in a way that felt relevant and rewarding. As marketers analyze this year’s Super Bowl ads, the biggest takeaway isn’t just which brand had the funniest commercial. It’s that loyalty, when done right, is a long-term play that keeps customers coming back game day and beyond. Looking for new ways to show your customers some love? 💘 Come up with 3-5 campaigns or experiences you can create for your most loyal customers. Starbucks offered free black coffee; what are similar offers your brand could come up with? When would this offer be most relevant? Identify experiences you can build with Braze and add them to your roadmap. Some ideas? In-app games powered by Braze IAMs: Games are a fun way to bring users into your app and offer unique opportunities to earn rewards outside your typical loyalty program (bonus points if they capture useful first-party data). We've helped several brands create experiences like matching games, voting challenges, spin-the-wheel, and 'streak' challenges — no third-party gamification tool required. Year-in-review campaigns: Spotify Wrapped walked so that brands worldwide could run with year-in-review campaigns (and let's be real, Spotify Wrapped is now sprinting). Customers love learning about themselves and these are a fun way to say 'I see you' and get creative with your data. Pro tip: If a hyper-personalized campaign isn't right for you (some people might not want to be reminded about how many tacos they ate last year), try a more high-level approach: like most popular taco type on the menu in your state vs nationally, most common combo in your state vs nationally, and most crazy customizations. - Scott Harrison Senior Marketing Strategist & Chef Extraordinaire PIN IT Braze tips & tricks 📌 [NEW] Self-Service Segmentation for Event & Purchase Properties On January 27th, Braze made some great changes to the "Manage Event Properties" page. What does this mean? 🆕 You can now do self-service segmentation for event and purchase properties through the dashboard. ❌ You no longer need to request this be done by your Braze account manager. 👓 You can also see what event and purchase properties have been enabled for segmentation. 📏 Additionally, there's an element that shows you your workspace's limits for segmentable event and purchase properties. This update offers a much more streamlined approach for marketers to build their audiences — ultimately reducing time to deploy new campaigns. A win! - Michael Cook Senior Solution Architect & Boston Marathon Qualifier PATCHWORK Decoding Braze Product Updates 🛠️ Sometimes the best things about a release aren’t new code, but new docs. Braze’s public docs game has always been strong, and in the past two months, that’s been on full display. Managing Leads with Salesforce Sales Cloud It’s exciting to see more documentation outlining ways to integrate Salesforce Sales Cloud and Braze. These docs provide a step-by-step guide to updating Lead records in Salesforce using Braze Webhook Templates. Need to create a Lead because they’re now sales-qualified? Easy. Want to append product usage data to a Lead record for sales intel? Done. Up next (hopefully): docs outlining how to send data into Braze from Sales Cloud. Need to take it the extra step and set up a two-way integration? Hit us up – we’ve got you. Refreshed Developer Docs Let’s start with a good old-fashioned list of reference & repo links. Is it sexy? No. Is every person at Stitch bookmarking it right now? Abso-freaking-lutely. Then, there’s the sweeping cleanup of the Braze Developer Guide. So intuitive. So streamlined. It’s oozing Stack Overflow vibes in the way it freely documents detailed steps for how to build with Braze. Then, there are updates to the Contributing Guide, Data, and Analytics sections, making contributions and navigating articles far more seamless. We see you, and we ♥️ you, Braze Docs team. Now, how about my favorite new platform feature? The award goes to new Catalog endpoints being GA. Helping marketers streamline their campaign process is our bread & butter, and automating the setup and management of Catalogs (and Selections) is a fundamental part of that streamlining effort. These APIs will make life even easier for marketers wanting to automate as much of the deployment process from their campaign management tools like Airtable, Retool, or ClickUp. Pumped to see what the Product team ships in the rest of 2025! - Ryan Wilkins Solution Lead & Youtube Famous for an Unknown Reason   HONE YOUR CRAFT Our top resources this month 🪡 Here are some things to add to your toolkit: 💝 Winning hearts (and minds). Talon.One is our Valentine: Learn more about why we believe they’re the best loyalty platform for modern marketers. Perfect pair: See five different loyalty campaigns you can build with Talon.One & Braze that maximize the strengths of both platforms. ICYMI: Braze hosted a loyalty-focused webinar with KFC & CVS Health. It’s worth the watch (or listen, while you’re deploying campaigns out of Braze 🤯). 📚 What we're reading Upcoming Braze email delivery tracking updates - Bobby Tichy Discover the strategies and trends shaping loyalty in 2025 and elevate your program beyond the basic earn-and-burn model - Talon.One The Best 120 Customer Appreciation Email Examples - Really Good Emails Breaking Down Braze's Latest Release: What Marketers Need to Know - Kirsten Schlau   LOOSE ENDS This month's VIP (very important pet) 🐾 Stitch, 830 Massachusetts Ave Floor 3, Suite 9, Indianapolis, IN 46204, USA Unsubscribe Manage preferences