May 2025 Bonfire Marketer of the Month: King’s Shelley Drogt

Each month, Braze selects one individual as our Marketer of the Month in order to celebrate the exceptional work being done by members of our Braze Bonfire community. Whether it's providing support for their fellow marketers or going above and beyond by sharing their innovative ideas and strategies, these individuals are making essential contributions to their companies, their users, and the customer engagement space as a whole.

This month, we’re recognizing Shelley Drogt, Senior CRM Specialist at King. King is a leading interactive entertainment company for the mobile world with more than 20 years of history of delivering some of the world’s most iconic games in the mobile gaming industry, including the world-famous Candy Crush franchise. We spoke to Shelley about creating campaigns for Candy Crush, leveraging Braze, and creativity in marketing. Let’s dive in.

Tell us about your background and the role you’re in now.

I’m currently a Senior CRM Specialist at King, where I have the exciting opportunity to work on Candy Crush Saga, a game that’s been a favorite of mine for years.

With over eight years of experience in marketing, I initially worked across various disciplines before honing my expertise in CRM. Over the past four years, I’ve focused specifically on CRM within the gaming industry, specializing in player engagement, retention strategies, and lifecycle marketing.

As an adventurous and curious person, I’ve always sought roles that align with my passions. Being a big gamer, transitioning into the gaming industry felt like a natural step; it’s incredibly rewarding to work on something I genuinely enjoy. Joining King in June 2024 was a dream opportunity, especially since Candy Crush has been the longest-played mobile game on my phone. Plus, it’s given my mum ultimate bragging rights—she’s a huge fan of the game and loves telling everyone that I work on it!

What is your favorite part of your job?

One of my favorite parts of my job is the creative problem-solving that comes with CRM strategy in gaming. Whether it's designing a seamless player journey, experimenting with new engagement mechanics, or collaborating with different teams, there's always something exciting to tackle.

I also love the fast-paced nature of working in gaming CRM. There’s constant innovation, and I get to be part of shaping how millions of players experience Candy Crush. Seeing a campaign come to life and knowing it contributes to player enjoyment and retention is incredibly rewarding.

Another highlight is the collaborative environment. I get to work with some brilliant minds, from marketers and data analysts to designers and developers, who all bring different perspectives to the table. That mix of creativity and data-driven decision-making makes every project feel fresh and impactful.

If I had to pick just one thing, though, it would be the connection to the players—as a gamer myself, it’s incredibly fulfilling to work on a game I genuinely love and see the impact of our campaigns.

How long have you been using Braze?

I’ve been using Braze for over three years, both in my current role at King and my previous one. Working across two major gaming companies, I’ve had the opportunity to explore the Braze platform’s capabilities in different contexts, from campaign automation to segmentation and personalization. It’s been a key tool in shaping how we connect with players in meaningful ways.

What’s an exciting campaign you worked on this year?

There are so many exciting campaigns I get to work on, the one I’ve loved most is the All Stars 2025 Tournament. It’s our biggest tournament of the year—in 2024 alone, it brought in an incredible 15 million players.

This year, I led the main strategy, and focused on maximizing player engagement with a seamless funnel from participation to long-term retention. I got to colloborate with colleagues on the end-to-end experience, from campaign execution to post-tournament engagement. Plus, working on the overall look and feel of the tournament with some brilliant stakeholders made this project even more special. It’s a huge moment for our players, and I was excited to make it even bigger this year!

Tell us about a time you used Braze to do something creative.

One campaign I’m especially proud of in the past few months is Candy Unwrapped. Launching in the US, it was a first-of-its-kind initiative for Candy Crush Saga, and it was incredible to see what a small but mighty team could achieve in such a short time.

Collaboration was key—bringing together CRM, Data, Marketing, and Design teams to create a personalized, shareable experience that celebrated players’ in-game achievements. We focused on making the insights fun and easy to understand, ensuring that players could connect with their stats and share their results in a meaningful way.

It was truly rewarding to see so many players sharing their yearly stats and celebrating their achievements. Seeing our work come together so quickly and successfully was a huge highlight, and I’m excited about the potential to expand on this in the future.

Interested in collaborating to build the future of customer engagement? Join a collective of experts to forge connections, share ideas, and accelerate your career at the Braze Bonfire Community.