case study

About the Project When PHH Group set out to migrate its entire CRM operation onto Braze, the timeline alone would have been enough to make most teams nervous, which is why they brought in LeverUP to run it. This is the story of the business transformation of PHH Group. CLIENT NAME: PHH Group INDUSTRY: E-commerce PLATFORM: Braze SERVICES: Braze implementation, system and campaign migration from a legacy platform, system enhancements and improvements, implementation of advanced capabilities like Braze Currents, Braze AI Recommendations and Nosto, onboarding of PHH Group’s CRM team. CONSUMER BRANDS: 4 (Pigu, 220.lv, Kaup24 and Hobby Hall) MARKETS: 4 (Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland) CUSTOMERS: Millions SENDING SUBDOMAINS: 9 TRANSACTIONAL CAMPAINGS: 1000 The Client PHH Group was formed in 2021 when Lithuania’s Pigu.lt merged with Finland’s Hobby Hall Group, creating the largest e-commerce company in the Baltic region, four brands (Pigu, 220.lv, Kaup24 and Hobby Hall) spanning four markets. In 2025, leadership launched a full turnaround programme to become leaner, faster and more profitable. CRM sat at the centre of that effort, as one of the group’s owned, cost-effective communication channels, it needed to start pulling real commercial weight. Migrating to Braze became one of the initiatives underpinning the wider turnaround, a bet on rebuilding customer trust and speed at the same time Fast-Moving Market and Slow-Moving CRM The old setup wasn’t failing dramatically, it was failing slowly, one constraint at a time. Dependence on external partners and stretched internal IT meant even minor changes required rounds of discussion and analysis before anyone could start building, and the effect compounded every time the team wanted to introduce or improve something and ran into integration limits or a partner without the flexibility to accommodate it. That constraint had a real cost, measured in hours – segmenting an audience or adjusting a live campaign could eat several hours of a data analyst’s time, and A/B testing ran at half the speed it does today. The team was permanently working below its actual capability. This coincided with a point at which our existing partner contract required a strategic decision, creating a clear opportunity to reconsider both our technology and operating model. Project Goals Migrate off a legacy platform onto Braze across all four PHH Group brands and markets, with zero downtime for millions of active users Build full operational independence so PHH Group’s CRM team could run and grow the platform without relying on external partners Consolidate business-unit architecture to efficiently operate across brands and markets Increase CRM’s direct contribution to commercial performance, turning it into a measurable driver of GMV The Migration That Couldn’t Afford a Bad Day PHH Group and LeverUP set a plan to migrate off a legacy platform onto Braze, across four markets and millions of users, in eight weeks, with zero tolerance for downtime. Confidence in that timeline came from dedicated resourcing across CRM, IT and Data, not from the schedule ever feeling comfortable. Before the migration began, PHH’s leadership pressure-tested the decision directly with the CMO, and once fully aligned, the team named its biggest risks up front and kept them visible for the full eight weeks. LeverUP’s role went beyond technical delivery. The team took ownership of project planning, progress tracking and documentation, alongside hands-on operational support throughout the migration, a combination of strategic coordination and practical delivery that kept the project on schedule. LeverUP coordinated every stage of the process, with a disciplined approach that kept even the smallest details under control and left no room for disruption or confusion. The rebuild itself changed how the team operates day to day, that is, a new data model and consolidated business-unit architecture gave PHH Group’s team direct ownership of far more usable data, and automation through Braze’s Connected Content turned promotional campaign management from an IT-dependent task into a self-serve one. Same Email, Smarter Targeting Braze AI recommendations at work across mobile and desktop This Is What Winning Looks Like – the Transformation, in Hard Numbers Beyond the numbers, the team gained capabilities it didn’t have before. Content Optimizer lets them test subject lines and sender names within the same send, and interactive, question-based emails now generate first-party data that feeds directly into future campaigns. For the shopper, that shows up as messages that are better timed and more relevant across every channel. GMV generated through CRM is up 15%Campaign production time is down 70%Click-through rate is up roughly 40%Manual work per promotional campaign was cut from ~15 minutes to ~5 minutesSegmentation and live-campaign edits – hours of analyst time → 10–20 minutesA/B testing now runs at roughly double its previous speed Where PHH Group Goes From Here CRM has become a significantly stronger driver of PHH Group’s overall business performance, enabling the company to operate with greater speed, flexibility and commercial impact. With that foundation in place, PHH Group is now positioned to compete and grow across the Baltic and Finnish markets with far less dependence on outside partners. What Does PHH Group Say? We had exceptionally high expectations of our migration partner because the timeline was so demanding, so it would be inaccurate to say that strong delivery surprised us. What particularly impressed us was how structured and thoroughly documented the entire process was. Marija Todorovska, Senior CX Consultant at LeverUp, deserves special recognition for coordinating every stage of the migration and ensuring that even the smallest details remained under control. Vytautas Romeika CMO at PHH Group LeverUP’s Take What made this project work wasn’t just the technology – it was the collaboration. From day one PHH Group’s team met us with genuine trust and real expertise, and that let us move fast without cutting corners. The 70% reduction in campaign production time and 15% lift in CRM-generated GMV are the result of both sides pulling in the same direction from day one. Marija Todorovska Senior CX Consultant at LeverUP LeverUP Named 2026 Torchie Awards Finalist with PHH Group LeverUP has been named a finalist for the 2026 Torchie Awards, recognized in the Transformation

About the Project Together with LeverUP, WINWIN implemented Salesforce Marketing Cloud as a strategic CRM platform with a clear focus on long-term internal ownership. A blueprint-driven approach, combined with structured knowledge transfer, enabled WINWIN to significantly reduce operational dependency on external providers and to independently design, operate, and evolve complex customer journeys. CLIENT NAME: WINWIN INDUSTRIES: Gaming, gambling & entertainment PLATFORM: Salesforce Marketing Cloud SERVICES: Blueprint and solution development for Marketing Cloud implementation, full Marketing Cloud implementation, system and campaign migration from legacy system, custom development work, system enhancements and improvements DURATION: Ongoing for 2+ years The Client WINWIN is an Austrian chain of gaming, gambling & entertainment venues owned by the Austrian Lotteries group. It has been operating since 2004, with around 20 locations across Austria. The Challenge Before the project, central CRM expertise – both technical and process-related – was largely externalized. This limited internal steering capability, slowed time-to-market for new journeys, and constrained strategic Innovative campaigns often required disproportionate external effort, reducing scalability and automation flexibility. At the same time, the existing CRM landscape limited consistent, data-driven orchestration across customer touchpoints. WINWIN therefore evaluated leading CRM platforms with the objective of selecting a scalable, economically viable solution that supports sustainable growth while explicitly enabling internal capability building. Project Goals The primary objective was to establish a modern CRM platform that enables WINWIN to: Build and retain internal CRM expertise Reduce long-term dependency on external delivery Scale customer engagement through a stable and maintainable architecture A key success factor was the deliberate balance between standard platform usage and targeted extensions: Scalable Salesforce Marketing Cloud architecture Strong reliance on standard capabilities to ensure maintainability Targeted custom development where business-specific value required it Custom voucher generation application enabling personalized voucher provisioning directly at the point of sale across WINWIN locations Omnichannel journey orchestration across Email and Push Notifications The Process The implementation followed a structured concept and architecture phase, resulting in a comprehensive blueprint. Two representative pilot journeys were defined to demonstrate the full platform potential. These journeys were initially implemented by LeverUP with close involvement of WINWIN employees. Subsequent use cases were rolled out iteratively, with responsibility progressively shifting to the internal team. While this approach required slightly more effort in early phases, it created lasting internal competence and operational independence. Results Since implementation, WINWIN has achieved: Significantly increased flexibility in planning and executing automated journeysSustainable internal CRM expertise enabling continuous strategic evolutionA stable and scalable architecture supporting future use casesMore consistent and data-driven customer communication LeverUP’s Take WINWIN’s journey demonstrates that successful customer engagement is not a one-time initiative but an ongoing evolution. With core capabilities established, the focus has shifted toward greater automation, deeper personalization, and continuous optimization. Today, WINWIN increasingly drives these initiatives independently, while LeverUP supports the next stage of growth as a strategic advisor. What does the client say? The project enabled WINWIN to independently own and evolve a scalable CRM engagement platform, with LeverUP supporting as a trusted implementation and enablement partner. WINWIN and LeverUP worked in a close, partnership-based setup. LeverUP invested early in understanding WINWIN’s specific business and regulatory context and translated these requirements into a pragmatic functional and technical design. The collaboration was characterized by transparency, joint decision-making, and a clear focus on enablement rather than pure delivery. LeverUP is a partner that acts as a coach and sparring partner, not just a vendor. Barbara Weiss Business Development & Special Projects Expert at WINWIN