At Braze, our mission is to forge human connections between consumers and the brands they love through relevant and memorable experiences. In turn, we deeply value our relationships with our own business customers, and are committed to their growing success. That’s why I am proud to announce the formation of the first-ever Braze Customer Advisory Board (CAB) specific to the Asia-Pacific region, launching along with the 2021 Braze CAB for North America, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, now in its third year.

The purpose of the CAB is to solicit feedback on Braze products and services, as well as the market in general, from some of the leading customers around the world. As a customer-centric organization, our own success at Braze is predicated on that of our customers, and nowhere is that more true than here in the APAC region. Timing is perfect for this important initiative: We have added nearly 70% more customers in the region since January 2020, and we expanded our footprint significantly with last fall’s announcement of Braze Japan. Our customers’ teams are actively engaged with us, too, with 272 APAC members of the Braze Bonfire community, a valuable resource for shared learnings about best practices with the platform.

The breadth of participants in the new APAC CAB is representative of the region’s dynamism and depth. The board includes executives from multiple industries, from Retail/eCommerce to Travel and Fintech, and also embodies our regional diversity, with members’ locations ranging from Seoul to Sydney (and, of course, Singapore). Companies represented include Ascend Group (TrueMoney parent), Jardine Restaurant Group (regional licensee for Yum! Brands KFC and Pizza Hut), Sephora SEA, and fashion retail/ecommerce giant Zalora. As the APAC region leads the world out of the pandemic, in many cases setting a new bar for technology-driven business-model innovation, these leaders’ perspectives will be invaluable in furthering our shared momentum and growth.

Launch of the APAC CAB represents a major Braze investment in a deeper understanding of the unique challenges and opportunities of this market. Super app dominance, localization requirements, language and culture differences, audience behavior and preferences...all distinguish the market here from that of the West. Insights from APAC Customer Advisors will enable Braze to evolve the platform to better serve the region’s unique needs and rising expectations. The result for Braze customers will be continuously improving experiences for their own customers. Happy customers lead to better business outcomes, and that’s good for everyone.