August 20, 2026 - The Chicago Journal

Moburst Campaign Portfolio and Client Work Across Global Digital Marketing Execution for Major Brands

The Chicago Journal Staff on August 20, 2026

Moburst Campaign Portfolio and Client Work Across Global Digital Marketing Execution for Major Brands

Digital marketing campaigns run in an organized setting characterized by algorithms, changes in consumer behavior, and performance measures. Companies can now distribute their marketing activities via search engines, mobile applications, social media, and programmatic ad networks. This creates a system where campaign performance is evaluated through continuous data tracking rather than static reporting cycles. Metrics such as install rates, conversion performance, cost per acquisition, and engagement levels have become standard indicators in campaign evaluation frameworks across the industry.

Moburst, founded in 2013 in Israel by Gilad Bechar and Lior Eldan, operates within this environment as a digital marketing and technology agency. The company focuses on app store optimization, user acquisition, paid media, influencer marketing, creative production, and development services. It has worked with global brands including Google, Uber, Samsung, Reddit, Discovery, Calm, Pfizer, Dropbox, McAfee, and Playtika. Its operations span North America, Europe, the Middle East, Latin America, Africa, and Asia, with offices in cities such as New York, San Francisco, Tel Aviv, Denver, Orlando, Miami, and London.

A significant portion of Moburst’s early campaign work centered on mobile growth and app visibility. One of the campaigns that has been well-documented is the Samsung Galaxy Apps campaign in 2018. This campaign’s objective was to increase downloads and engagement in Samsung’s application store.

In 2019, Moburst worked on the launch of the SAY app. This campaign focused on user acquisition and early growth performance. It was later recognized at the Effective Mobile Marketing Awards in 2019 for performance marketing execution. The campaign emphasized app store visibility and acquisition strategy during the early adoption phase of the product lifecycle, when user acquisition costs and conversion rates are typically most volatile.

By 2021, campaign activity expanded into social-driven user acquisition channels. One such example that comes up often is the TikTok marketing campaign by Shopkick. The first part of the campaign did not yield the anticipated results, resulting in changes to the direction of the creative content and the targeting strategy. The modified campaign involved moving from the use of conventional ads towards a more user-generated format. The campaign was subsequently recognized for mobile video marketing in 2021 at the Mobile Marketing Magazine Awards.

In 2022, Moburst supported the international launch of Redefine Meat. The campaign focused on global market entry and brand visibility across multiple regions. The same year, it conducted optimization work for the Abide app, focusing on performance metrics such as subscriptions and cost efficiency. Published case study material describes the Abide engagement as centered on paid and organic media alongside subscription acquisition strategy.

The period from 2023 to 2024 shows a broader set of performance marketing and user acquisition campaigns across multiple industries. These include PlugSports, Upside, PreVue, NewDay USA, SYNLawn, and Truecaller. Each campaign operated within performance-based frameworks combining influencer marketing, paid media execution, and conversion optimization strategies.

The PlugSports campaign focused on influencer-driven user acquisition targeting high school athletes. The execution involved multiple influencers and short-form video content distributed across social platforms. Athlete-led creative sat at the center of the work, with installs and engagement tracked as the primary measurement points throughout the campaign period.

The Upside campaign focused on app store optimization and conversion rate improvements within a competitive cashback app category. The work included A/B testing of app store assets and paid traffic experimentation. Store listing elements were revised iteratively, with click-to-install rate and organic visibility used as the reference metrics for each round of testing.

PreVue’s campaign focused on app launch growth using social media acquisition strategies. Structured digital advertising ran alongside continuous creative and channel testing during the launch window.

However, other campaigns like NewDay USA, SYNLawn, and Truecaller were structured around performance-oriented objectives, including conversions, engagement, and digital visibility. Such campaigns also illustrate how paid media and analytics, along with creative testing, are consistently integrated into campaign structures.

For all campaigns, Moburst uses a standardized business model involving paid acquisitions, organic optimization, and performance analytics. The strategy for every campaign is consistently refined through metrics like cost per install, conversions, and engagement. This type of strategy is commonly applied in the mobile application market, since even minor tweaks in content and targeting may shift the process of user acquisition.

Campaigns are also conducted in accordance with industry standards. Execution across multiple channels has become the norm, with brands spreading their budgets among app stores, social media, search engines, and influencer marketing. Moburst’s work across Samsung, Shopkick, Redefine Meat, Upside, and PlugSports demonstrates this shift toward integrated campaign systems rather than isolated channel strategies.

Gilad Bechar and Lior Eldan remain associated with the company’s leadership as Moburst continues to operate across global markets. Its campaign portfolio reflects a consistent focus on measurable performance outcomes within mobile-first and multi-channel digital marketing environments.

Royston G King of Quantum Scaling Partners on the Case for Narrowing an Offer Before Expanding It

The Chicago Journal Staff on August 20, 2026

The instinct of a growing company is to add. New services, new markets, new client categories, each addition justified by an opportunity that appeared genuine at the time. The result, after several years, is a business that does many things adequately and few things distinctively.

Royston G King, founder of Quantum Scaling Partners and of Master Scaling, argues that most firms would grow faster by subtracting. The position is counterintuitive, since removing services appears to remove revenue. His contention is that the arithmetic is misleading, because a broad offer imposes costs that do not appear on any line item. King, who advises founders on positioning, service design, and growth, was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list and studied at the University of Southern California.

The first of those costs is explanation. A firm with a wide service range cannot describe itself briefly. Its website lists categories rather than outcomes. Its salespeople open by asking what the prospect needs rather than by asserting what the firm does. Every conversation begins with orientation, which consumes the portion of a prospect’s attention that a narrower firm spends on demonstrating expertise.

The second cost is referral friction. Clients refer providers they can describe in one sentence. A firm known specifically for one kind of work gets recommended whenever that work arises in conversation, without the referrer needing to think. A firm known for general capability gets recommended only when someone happens to remember it, which is far less often. Breadth reduces the number of situations in which a business comes to mind.

The third and largest cost is internal. Each additional service requires its own delivery process, its own quality standards, its own set of tools, and its own accumulated judgement. A team delivering four different service lines is running four learning curves at once, none of which reaches the level that a single focused practice would achieve in the same period. Expertise compounds, and it compounds only where attention is concentrated.

King is careful to distinguish narrowing from shrinking. The recommendation is not to serve fewer clients but to serve them with a tighter proposition. In practice, a firm that narrows its offer usually finds that its addressable market feels smaller and its actual pipeline grows, because it has become the obvious choice within a defined category rather than a plausible choice within a broad one.

The diagnostic question Quantum Scaling Partners uses is straightforward. For each service the firm offers, can it name a specific reason why a well informed buyer would choose it over a specialist in that service alone. Where the honest answer is no, that service is being sustained by client convenience rather than by capability, and it is likely consuming more management attention than its revenue justifies.

The transition itself requires care. Cutting a service line abruptly damages relationships with clients who rely on it. The more workable approach is to stop selling the service to new clients while continuing to honour existing commitments, allowing the line to wind down naturally over a year or more. The pipeline reshapes long before the revenue mix does, which is why the change should be measured on new business rather than on total billings.

There is also a case for narrowing by client type rather than by service. A firm might keep its full range of capabilities while restricting the industries it serves. This produces many of the same benefits, since deep familiarity with one sector allows a firm to anticipate problems, reference relevant precedent, and speak the language of its buyers without translation. The specialisation is in the context rather than the craft.

King notes a psychological obstacle that is rarely discussed. Founders often maintain broad offers because breadth feels like security. A firm that does several things appears less exposed if one market weakens. In practice this is usually the reverse of the truth, because a business that is second choice in five categories is more vulnerable than one that is first choice in a single category with an established reputation and a referral base.

The question worth asking, in his framing, is not what a business could offer, but what it should be known for. Those are different questions, and only the second one compounds.

About Royston G. King

Royston G. King writes and advises on brand authority, strategic publicity, and reputation management. Learn more about his work at his website. You can also follow his insights on LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTube.

Walgreens Retreats From Chicago’s South Side and Downtown as Pharmacy Access Gaps Widen

The Chicago Journal Staff 2 on August 20, 2026

Walgreens has pulled back from Chicago on two fronts over the past year. The pharmacy chain vacated its 208,600-square-foot office at the Old Post Office near the Loop in January 2026, consolidating corporate staff to its Deerfield headquarters. On the retail side, the Chatham Walgreens at 8628 South Cottage Grove Avenue closed permanently on June 4, becoming the sixth South Side location to shut down in roughly 12 months. Sixth Ward Alderman William Hall and community leaders have framed the closures as a pattern of corporate disinvestment that is creating pharmacy deserts in predominantly Black neighborhoods where residents, particularly seniors, depend on walkable access to prescription services.

Key Takeaways

The Walgreens at 8628 South Cottage Grove Avenue in Chatham closed permanently on June 4, 2026, after the company cited elevated theft and violent incidents at the location
The Chatham closure is the sixth South Side Walgreens to shut down in approximately 12 months, following locations in Bronzeville, Little Village, South Shore, Chicago Lawn, and South Chicago
Walgreens Regional Vice President Reginald Johnson said the Chatham store lost more than $1 million and described the closure as a last resort
The nearest Walgreens to the former Chatham location is 1.3 miles away at 1616 East 87th Street; the company offered 90 days of free prescription delivery to affected patients
Walgreens also vacated its 208,600-square-foot office at the Old Post Office in January 2026, listing the space for sublease after Sycamore Partners acquired the company in a deal valued at approximately $10 billion

Six South Side Closures in One Year Reshape the Pharmacy Map

The Chatham closure did not arrive in isolation. Five Walgreens stores on the South and West Sides closed in February 2025, covering Bronzeville, Little Village, South Shore, Chicago Lawn, and South Chicago. West Roseland lost its Walgreens in 2023. A separate location on East 71st Street closed on May 19, 2026, just weeks before the Chatham store followed. Three South Shore Walgreens closed within an 18-month window. The cumulative effect is a contraction of pharmacy access across a broad swath of the South Side, concentrated in neighborhoods where residents have fewer alternatives.

A 2022 Chicago Sun-Times analysis found that access to the two largest pharmacy chains in Chicago, Walgreens and CVS, was significantly higher in the city’s white communities than in Black or Latino areas. Of Walgreens’ more than 100 Chicago locations at the time, approximately one-third were located on the South and West Sides. Each closure since then has shifted that ratio further.

Walgreens cited “significantly higher levels of theft and violent incidents” as the reason for the Chatham closure. The company said it had made previous operating adjustments, including cutting the store’s hours from 24-hour service to closing at midnight, but that ongoing safety challenges made it unsustainable to keep the location open. Regional Vice President Reginald Johnson told residents at a May 10 town hall that the Chatham store had lost more than $1 million. He described the closure as a last resort, not a goal.

Aldermen and Residents Push Back With Calls for Reinvestment

Sixth Ward Alderman William Hall led a protest outside the Chatham Walgreens on May 4, the day the closure was announced. He was joined by Fifth Ward Alderman Desmond Yancy and community members who described the decision as one more example of corporate withdrawal from the South Side.

Hall framed the issue in blunt terms. He accused Walgreens of profiting from communities of color for decades without investing proportionally in store infrastructure, security redesigns, or staffing on the South Side. Hall pointed to how the company responded to operational challenges at locations in other parts of the city, arguing that stores serving predominantly white neighborhoods received upgraded security plans and store redesigns while South Side locations were left without comparable support before being closed.

Hall called on Walgreens to either keep the pharmacy open or invest in alternative healthcare organizations in the community. The company did not commit to either. Walgreens said prescriptions would be automatically transferred to the nearest location at 1616 East 87th Street, 1.3 miles from the closed store, and that affected patients would receive 90 days of free prescription delivery.

For residents without reliable transportation, a 1.3-mile distance to the nearest pharmacy is a meaningful barrier. Chatham has a high concentration of older residents who relied on the Cottage Grove location for walkable prescription pickup. The neighborhood had already lost a Target location, compounding the sense that essential retail services were disappearing from the community in rapid succession.

Small Pharmacies Face Pressure to Fill the Gap

Independent pharmacy operators and health consultants on the South Side have acknowledged the strain the closures are placing on remaining providers. Eryn White, a business consultant at Uptima Entrepreneur Cooperative, told CBS Chicago that smaller pharmacies are stepping in where they can, offering medical supplies, nutritional supplements, and cash-based alternatives to traditional prescription therapies. The challenge is that independent pharmacies typically lack the volume, staffing, and insurance network access that a national chain provides. Filling the prescription throughput of a closed Walgreens is not a simple substitution.

Walgreens operates more than 100 locations across Chicago and thousands more nationally. The company said in May that it expects to close fewer than 100 stores in 2026, a figure scaled back dramatically from earlier internal projections of roughly 700 closures. The reduction followed Walgreens’ transition to private ownership under Sycamore Partners, the New York-based private equity firm that completed its approximately $10 billion acquisition in 2025 and split the company into five separate operating entities. The company also said it had approved four new store openings nationally, though no South Side locations were identified among them.

The Old Post Office Exit Removes Walgreens From Downtown Chicago

The corporate retreat from Chicago extends beyond the retail closures. Walgreens vacated its office at 433 West Van Buren Street, inside the Old Post Office, in January 2026. The space spanned 208,600 square feet and had capacity for up to 1,800 employees. Walgreens was one of the first and largest tenants when the Old Post Office reopened in 2020 following a $900 million renovation of the historic Postal Service building.

CEO Greg Motz announced the exit in October 2025, describing the move as a way to streamline operations and enhance collaboration by consolidating staff at the Deerfield headquarters. The office featured modern interiors and colorful murals of Chicago neighborhoods, built out by contractor Skender. Walgreens’ retail store inside the Old Post Office remains open.

The 208,600-square-foot sublease listing became the largest single block of available downtown sublease space, adding to a central business district already contending with elevated office vacancy. CBRE data cited by Propmodo showed the downtown vacancy rate pushing into the high-20% range in 2025, with sublease inventory remaining more than 50% above pre-pandemic levels. The Walgreens space, built out and essentially plug-and-play for a new tenant, joins a crowded sublease market where tenants hold leverage and landlords are competing to attract and retain occupancy.

Pharmacy Access and Corporate Presence Contract Simultaneously

The two tracks of Walgreens’ Chicago retreat, retail and corporate, are driven by different pressures but produce a combined effect that reshapes the company’s relationship with the city. The South Side closures remove prescription access from neighborhoods where alternatives are limited. The Old Post Office exit removes hundreds of corporate jobs from the downtown office market. Together, they reduce Walgreens’ physical footprint in Chicago to its Deerfield headquarters and a shrinking network of retail stores weighted toward the North Side and suburbs.

Walgreens has maintained that retail pharmacy remains central to its strategy and that closures are a last resort. The company has not announced plans to open new locations on the South Side. For residents in Chatham and the surrounding neighborhoods, the transition from a walkable pharmacy to a 1.3-mile trip and a 90-day delivery window represents a tangible reduction in daily access to healthcare services. The gap left behind is one that smaller operators and community health organizations are working to address, but the scale of the need outpaces the resources currently available to meet it.

FAQs

Why did Walgreens close the Chatham location?

Walgreens cited “significantly higher levels of theft and violent incidents” at the 8628 South Cottage Grove Avenue store. Regional Vice President Reginald Johnson said the store lost more than $1 million and described the closure as a last resort after previous operating adjustments failed to resolve ongoing safety challenges.

Where is the nearest Walgreens to the former Chatham store?

The nearest Walgreens is located at 1616 East 87th Street, approximately 1.3 miles from the closed Chatham location. Walgreens said prescriptions would be automatically transferred and offered 90 days of free prescription delivery to affected patients.

How many Walgreens stores have closed on Chicago’s South Side recently?

The Chatham closure on June 4, 2026, was the sixth South Side Walgreens to close in approximately 12 months. Previous closures included locations in Bronzeville, Little Village, South Shore, Chicago Lawn, and South Chicago in February 2025, plus West Roseland in 2023 and an East 71st Street location on May 19, 2026.

Why did Walgreens leave the Old Post Office?

Walgreens vacated its 208,600-square-foot office at the Old Post Office in January 2026 to consolidate staff at its Deerfield, Illinois, headquarters. CEO Greg Motz said the move was intended to streamline operations following Sycamore Partners’ approximately $10 billion acquisition of the company in 2025.