Our Impact
GEMS School of Research & Innovation
The situation
GEMS was preparing to launch the most expensive school in the history of its network — a $200M flagship with significant investment, high expectations, and an aggressive enrollment target.
By the time Whitney stepped in, enrollment was sitting at roughly 34 students. Multiple major external agencies had already been engaged without producing the level of work or commercial movement the launch required, despite significant spend.
The challenge
The issue was bigger than generating more leads. The launch needed stronger positioning, better creative, tighter enrollment conversion, clearer parent communications, and far better coordination across a complex international network of internal teams and agencies.
The work
Whitney led marketing, communications, brand, creative direction, enrollment strategy, and launch execution with responsibility for a $17M marketing budget.
She coordinated multiple specialist teams across three countries — including design and parent-facing materials in Australia, the corporate team in Dubai, PR and communications support in the UK, and work connected to a custom Microsoft launch. She also strengthened the enrollment journey, directed campaign activity, aligned creative output, and created greater consistency across the launch.
The result
34 → 400+ students in roughly five months
Lead-to-enrolled conversion: ~26% → 55%
$17M marketing budget
Hundreds of qualified leads generated in the run-up to opening.
Why it matters
This is the kind of experience behind JAEBYRD: stepping into a high-stakes, complex environment, making sense of fragmented work, aligning multiple teams, and turning strategy into measurable commercial movement.