MarTech360 Interview with Gilad Bechar, Founder and CEO at Moburst

In the agency world, your reputation is everything, and the best way to build a great reputation is to become known as a partner who consistently drives real, tangible growth

Gilad, can you tell us about your professional background and your current role at Moburst? Also, how does Moburst differentiate itself from others in the space?

It’s a pleasure to share my journey and what we’re building at Moburst.

My professional path has always been deeply rooted in the digital and mobile space. Before founding Moburst, I had the privilege of gaining experience from various perspectives of the industry. I served as the Chief Marketing Officer at CallApp and held the role of VP of Media at OnTheMob. My time as a mentor consultant as mobile expert at the Microsoft Accelerator was particularly rewarding, allowing me to guide emerging companies through the intricacies of the mobile landscape. I also have a passion for education and have served as the Mobile Marketing Academic Director at Tel-Aviv University.

These experiences culminated in the founding of Moburst in 2013. As the Founder and CEO, my primary role is to set the vision and strategy for the company, ensuring we stay at the forefront of the ever-evolving digital marketing world. I’m actively involved in our major client relationships and continuously push our team to innovate and deliver exceptional results.

This leads to your second question: how Moburst differentiates itself. Our evolution has been a key part of our unique proposition. We began as a mobile-first agency, and while that expertise remains at our core, we’ve expanded to become a full-service digital agency offering over 25 services. This ‘mobile-first’ digital approach allows us to create seamless and effective strategies for our clients in a world where mobile is the primary touchpoint for most consumers.

Our key differentiators can be summarized in a few points:

A Focus on Hypergrowth: We partner with our clients with the explicit goal of helping them achieve significant and scalable growth. Our track record includes working with some of the world’s most recognized brands, such as Google, Uber, and Samsung, to help them dominate their respective categories.

Data-Driven Creativity: We firmly believe in the power of combining creative solutions with advanced technology and insightful data. This synergy allows us to craft campaigns that are not only engaging but also deliver measurable and impactful results.

Strategic Expansion: We are constantly looking for ways to enhance our capabilities. Through strategic acquisitions of specialized agencies in areas like video production, web design, PR and most recently, podcasting, we’ve broadened our expertise to offer a truly integrated and comprehensive suite of services.

Client-Centric Approach: We pride ourselves on building long-term partnerships with our clients. Our team is dedicated to understanding their unique challenges and goals to deliver tailored strategies that exceed expectations.

Ultimately, what sets Moburst apart is our holistic and growth-oriented approach. We’re not just a service provider; we’re a growth partner dedicated to our clients’ success.”

Among all your services, data-driven creativity is a major pillar for Moburst. How do you strike the right balance between performance metrics and bold, innovative creative strategies?

That’s a fantastic question because it gets to the core of our philosophy. We don’t see performance metrics and bold creativity as opposing forces; we see them as two sides of the same coin. They exist in a continuous, symbiotic loop.

Our approach is to use data as the launchpad for creativity. Before our creative team even starts brainstorming, they are armed with deep data insights about the target audience – their behaviors, motivations, and emotional triggers. This data-driven foundation doesn’t stifle creativity; it empowers our team to be bolder and take calculated risks because their ideas are grounded in what we know works.

The “balance” is achieved through a relentless culture of A/B testing. A bold, innovative idea is a great starting point, but we let the data tell us if it truly resonates. We test everything from different ad copy and visual styles to entirely different conceptual approaches. This iterative process allows us to refine our most creative ideas and ensure they are not just artistically pleasing but are also driving measurable results. If a bold creative isn’t hitting the desired Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), the data provides the roadmap for how to evolve it to perform better. This way, hard metrics don’t limit our creativity; they give it direction and purpose, ensuring our work is not only innovative but also impactful for our clients’ bottom line.

Moburst has worked with top brands like Google, Uber, and Samsung. What’s your secret to consistently winning and delivering for such high-profile clients?

There isn’t a single “secret,” but rather a combination of factors that are deeply ingrained in our company culture. First and foremost is our commitment to becoming a true growth partner, not just a service provider. High-profile clients like Google, Uber, and Samsung expect a team that is as invested in their success as they are. We achieve this by immersing ourselves in their business and focusing on their long-term goals.

Another key element is our data-driven and transparent approach. Large brands appreciate our ability to tie every marketing activity back to clear, measurable results. We don’t just present beautiful creative; we present a clear strategy with projected outcomes and then rigorously report on our progress. This accountability builds trust and fosters long-term relationships.

Finally, our talent is a significant differentiator. We have a team of passionate experts who are at the forefront of the digital marketing landscape. We consistently deliver for these top-tier clients because we bring proactive, innovative ideas to the table that challenge their own thinking and help them stay ahead of the competition.

Also Read: MarTech360 Interview with David Mandeno, co-founder and COO at Revving

Moburst’s ‘mobile-first’ approach clearly resonates with clients. But as connected ecosystems expand, think wearables, smart TVs, voice, how are you evolving this philosophy?

Our ‘mobile-first’ philosophy is constantly evolving. While it started with a focus on the smartphone as the primary touchpoint, it has grown to encompass the user’s entire digital journey, which is increasingly fragmented across various connected devices. Today, ‘mobile-first’ means understanding that the user is mobile, even if the device they are using at any given moment is not a phone.

We are adapting by focusing on creating seamless, cross-platform experiences. A user might see an ad on their smart TV, search for the brand on their laptop, and make a purchase through their smartphone. Our strategies are designed to connect these dots, ensuring a consistent and compelling brand message across all touchpoints. We are actively developing expertise in marketing for wearables, Connected TV (CTV), and voice assistants, viewing them as extensions of the mobile experience. The core principle remains the same: understanding user behavior in a mobile-centric world and leveraging technology to deliver the right message at the right moment, regardless of the device.

You often speak about growth marketing. In today’s saturated digital space, what separates a good growth strategy from a great one?

In a saturated market, a good growth strategy will find pockets of opportunity and execute well-defined tactics. A great growth strategy, however, is one that builds a sustainable, compounding growth engine. The key differentiator is the ability to connect all marketing efforts into a cohesive, full-funnel approach that is relentlessly optimized.

A great strategy doesn’t just focus on user acquisition; it places equal, if not greater, importance on user activation, retention, and monetization. It’s about understanding the entire customer lifecycle and identifying the levers that will have the most significant impact on long-term growth. Furthermore, a great strategy is agile and adaptable. It’s not a static plan but a dynamic framework that can quickly pivot based on data and market feedback. This often involves a high tempo of experimentation and a willingness to embrace failure as a learning opportunity.

In the face of economic uncertainty and tighter marketing budgets, what strategies do you recommend to brands looking to scale sustainably?

During times of economic uncertainty, the knee-jerk reaction for many is to slash marketing budgets across the board. However, the brands that emerge stronger are the ones that focus on efficiency and sustainable growth.

My primary recommendation is to double down on what’s working. This requires a deep dive into your analytics to identify the channels and campaigns that are delivering the highest return on investment. It’s about optimizing for profitability, not just growth at any cost.

Secondly, place a significant emphasis on retention. Acquiring a new customer is almost always more expensive than retaining an existing one. Brands should invest in improving their product, customer service, and loyalty programs to maximize the lifetime value of their current user base.

Finally, get creative with organic marketing channels. Content marketing, SEO with AEO for the AI tools out there like ChatGPT and Gemini, and building a strong community can drive significant, long-term growth without a hefty ad spend. It’s about playing the long game and building a brand that has an enduring connection with its audience.

With AI now reshaping how we analyze data, generate content, and personalize user journeys, how is Moburst leveraging AI in its marketing stack?

We view AI as a complete reimagination of how marketing should be done, and we’re embedding it into the very fabric of our operations. For us, AI is not just another tool or a simple automation fix; it’s a fundamental shift that has the power to transform every one of our service offerings. To lead this transformation, we’ve taken significant, concrete steps to ensure we are at the forefront of the AI revolution in marketing.

A major part of our commitment is the recent appointment of Hagar Seri as our Vice President of AI. Hagar has been an innovative leader at Moburst for years, previously transforming our organic growth services into a multifaceted, data-driven engine. In her new role, she is tasked with leading the strategic integration of AI across all our marketing solutions, focusing on adoption, automation, and the development of new AI-powered products to enhance efficiency and drive client success.

To ensure that AI innovation is not siloed within one department but is woven into our company culture, we have launched the “AI Champions” Program. This is a company-wide initiative designed to embed AI expertise into every aspect of our operations. The program consists of a select group of employees from each department – including performance marketing, creative, social media, strategy, etc., who act as pioneers for AI within their teams.

The AI Champions program is built on four key pillars:

1. AI Adoption and Training: We provide our teams with structured AI training, monthly enrichment sessions, and internal workshops to ensure they are proficient with the latest tools and methodologies.

2. AI Knowledge Hub (Moburst Brain): We are creating a centralized, AI-powered internal search tool. This will enhance efficiency by making our collective knowledge and case studies instantly accessible to everyone in the company.

3. AI Automation and Efficiency: The Champions are tasked with identifying repetitive tasks and optimizing workflows within their departments using AI-powered automation, freeing up our teams to focus on higher-level strategy and creativity.

4. AI Product Development: We are actively exploring and developing proprietary AI-driven solutions that will directly improve the marketing performance and results we deliver for our clients.

Through this structured approach, our AI Champions act as the bridge between our teams and leadership, ensuring that AI is integrated effectively and is aligned with our long-term innovation strategy. So, to answer your question, we aren’t just using off-the-shelf AI tools. We are fundamentally restructuring our team and operations to be AI-first, ensuring we can leverage this technology to offer our clients the most advanced and effective marketing strategies in the industry.

You’ve built a global team across New York, Tel Aviv, and London. What are some leadership lessons you’ve learned about managing culture and collaboration across geographies?

Building and managing a global team has been one of the most rewarding challenges. The most critical lesson I’ve learned is the importance of intentionality in building a unified company culture. You can’t just expect it to happen organically across different offices and time zones.

A key to this is establishing a clear and compelling company vision and set of values that everyone, regardless of their location, can rally behind. This creates a shared sense of purpose that transcends geographical boundaries.

Communication is, of course, paramount. We invest in the tools and processes that facilitate seamless collaboration, but more importantly, we foster a culture of open and transparent communication. This includes regular all-hands meetings where we share company-wide updates, learnings, and celebrate wins from all our offices.

Finally, it’s crucial to embrace the unique strengths and cultural nuances of each location while still fostering a cohesive global identity. Encouraging cross-office projects and creating opportunities for team members to meet in person when possible helps to build the personal relationships that are the bedrock of effective collaboration. This is even more important than before after the recent M&As, where we’ve added our Orlando office with the PR folks from Uproar by Moburst, and the Denver team of Kitcaster by Moburst as both joined us in the past 8 months.

For young entrepreneurs building agencies today, what’s one mistake to avoid, and one bold move worth making early on? Also, what is the one piece of advice you will give them?

The one mistake to avoid is trying to be everything to everyone from day one. Many new agencies cast their net too wide, offering a vast array of services without having deep expertise in any single one. This leads to mediocre work and an inability to stand out in a crowded market.

The one bold move worth making is to niche down and become the absolute best in a specific area. Whether it’s a particular industry, a specific platform, or a certain type of service, developing a deep and demonstrable expertise will allow you to attract high-quality clients and build a strong reputation. Once you have established that foundation, you can then strategically expand your service offerings.

The one piece of advice I would give is to be relentlessly focused on delivering measurable results for your clients. In the agency world, your reputation is everything, and the best way to build a great reputation is to become known as a partner who consistently drives real, tangible growth. Your clients’ success will be the most powerful marketing tool you have.

Is there anything that you’re currently reading, or any favorite books, that you would recommend?

Absolutely. I’m a firm believer that continuous learning is essential, and reading is a huge part of that. Two books that I consistently recommend to my team and fellow entrepreneurs are “Never Split the Difference” by Chris Voss and “Nudge” by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein.

On the surface, “Never Split the Difference” is a book about high-stakes hostage negotiation, written by a former lead negotiator for the FBI. But its real value is in teaching the art of tactical empathy. Voss breaks down how to truly listen and understand the motivations and emotions of the person on the other side of the table. The principles – like mirroring, labeling, and using calibrated questions – are incredibly powerful. They’ve changed how I approach everything from client partnerships and internal team management to high-level business strategy. It’s less about winning a negotiation and more about deeply understanding human dynamics to achieve the best outcome.

The other book, “Nudge,” is a masterclass in behavioral economics and choice architecture. Thaler and Sunstein explain how the way choices are presented to us influences the decisions we make every day. For anyone in marketing, this is fundamental. It pulls back the curtain on the subtle forces that guide user behavior. Reading it makes you rethink everything about designing a user journey, from crafting ad copy and laying out a landing page to developing an app’s onboarding flow. It provides a scientific framework for making it easier for users to make good decisions – which is exactly what we want to do for our clients’ customers.

I love recommending these two together. “Never Split the Difference” is about the psychology of direct communication and influence, while “Nudge” is about the psychology of indirect influence and environment design. Both are essential for anyone whose job it is to connect with people and inspire action.

Thanks Gilad!