Overview
The preeminent publication for the intellectually curious wanted to leverage its brand name, content and value in a new digital-first format outside the traditional magazine publishing industry. Gather worked with the company to launch its first ever brand-extension product: Economist Education.
The Approach
Using Gather’s proprietary REV-ID approach, we worked with management to identify numerous areas of opportunity, landing on the education sector as the singular best fit for the brand. Gather was retained to write the business plan and develop the go-to-market strategy for a B2B new executive education business leveraging The Economist content. Gather also acted as interim CMO during the development phase, product launch and initial growth cycle of Economist Education, an online education business focused on cross-border transactions for mid-career professionals.
The Impact
The Economist along with Gather, was able to bring ideation around branded B2B service offerings through refinement to an education offering to product launch in under 1-year. Gather took on an interim CMO leadership position to launch the business and were engaged to find a replacement full-time CMO. The business has grown to over $10MM in net new revenue for The Economist. Gather was subsequently retained to develop and run the innovation center for all The Economist properties. Gather has since developed a second Start-up within The Economist also focused on education, but now targeted towards the B2C market: Learning.ly