CHICAGOBUSINESS.COM I MARCH 4, 2024
ON TAYLOR STREET, TIME IS RUNNING OUT ‘Little Italy is no longer a thing,’ says one restaurant operator. ‘It has come and gone.’ | PAGE 19
ALLY MAROTTI
Chicago-based prayer app claims No. 1 spot
For major airlines, the DEI wars are just beginning
Hallow got some bang for its buck with a regional 30-second Super Bowl commercial By Corli Jay
If you ask Alex Jones, cofounder and CEO of the prayer and meditation app Hallow, how he feels about the success of the app, he'd give all glory to God. Hallow, a Chicago-based startup, can be spotted in Apple's app store in the No. 1 spot for free apps following its Super Bowl commercial, which featured actor Mark Wahlberg asking viewers to join him in prayer this Lent and to “stay prayed up.”
“Jesus is now on top of the app store charts, who would've thought,” said Jones when asked about the success of the Super Bowl ad. The 30-second commercial ran in 14 markets in a regional spot and cost just a fraction of the $7 million a national ad demanded, said Jones. Hallow beat out discount e-commerce app Temu, which sits at No. 2 on the list of free apps after dropping billions into marketing recently — a particular point of pride for Jones.
Hallow ran a 30-second commercial in 14 markets for the Super Bowl and hit Apple’s No. 1 spot for free apps. | HALLOW
“We're a small team, so it was certainly a big swing for us. It was a big bet. We really never would have considered it, if not for the fact that the Super Bowl, once every 10 to 15 years, happens to See APP on Page 16
Carriers find themselves at the center of an escalating political debate over diversity policies By John Pletz
The three big airlines that employ tens of thousands of workers in Chicago — United, American and Southwest — are being dragged into the culture wars. America First Legal, a group started by former Trump adviser Stephen Miller, has taken aim at the airlines in its broader fight
against diversity, equity and inclusion. It started last fall with a complaint filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, claiming the airlines’ diversity policies are discriminatory. The group followed up in January with a letter to the
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GREG HINZ A voter’s guide to two of the trickier issues on the March 19 primary ballot.
FINANCIAL SERVICES Discover-Capital One deal leaves a highly touted Chatham call center’s fate uncertain.
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