GEMS Education has launched its ‘Lost in Translation‘ campaign, created to address a challenge that extends far beyond the classroom: how do you make Arabic feel relevant, engaging and accessible to a generation growing up in highly multicultural, predominantly English-speaking environments?
Lost in Translation is not an awareness campaign about Arabic learning. Instead, it achieves its goal to create an emotional connection with Arabic language, Emirati culture and local identity, while also positioning GEMS as a champion of cultural preservation, innovation, and future-focused education.
In an exclusive conversation with Campaign Middle East, Suad Merchant, Chief Marketing Officer of GEMS Education, said, “We wanted to not only promote Arabic learning, but to reimagine how children experience Arabic in their daily lives. We wanted to create something children would actively choose to watch. Rather than telling students why Arabic matters, we wanted to show them through relatable characters and everyday situations that reflect life in the UAE.”
The campaign also represents the next phase in the evolution of the GEMS Centre of Excellence for Arabic Language and Culture led by GEMS Al Khaleej International School. Since launching in November 2024, the Centre has been on a mission to transform Arabic-language learning through immersive experiences, cultural appreciation, teacher development, research, and technology-enabled learning.
“It was created not simply as a learning space, but as a platform to reimagine how Arabic is experienced by future generations,” Merchant said.
Rollout of GEMS Education’s ‘Lost in Translation’ campaign
The campaign was brought to life as an episodic storytelling platform rather than a traditional advertising campaign.
Merchant explained, “The campaign was designed with longevity in mind. Rather than creating a single hero film, we wanted to build a storytelling platform that audiences could return to over time. Each episode explores different aspects of life in the UAE through humour, culture, family dynamics, language, and everyday interactions.”
The brand began by introducing audiences to the world of Lost in Translation through teaser content and character-led storytelling across digital and social channels.
This was followed by a bilingual trailer introducing Mayed and the wider cast of characters before launching the first episode, The Comeback.
The second episode was then released as an Eid Al Adha special, in which Mayed finds himself tempted by rows of delicious Machboos and Luqaimat, only to discover a deeper lesson about sharing with neighbours, family, and the wider community.
The campaign is also being supported through social media, video content, CRM communications, public relations, school communications, internal engagement channels and community amplification across the GEMS network.
The campaign was developed in partnership with Sweetwater, who worked closely with the GEMS Education team to bring the vision of Lost in Translation to life.
“From the outset, there was a shared belief that this needed to feel less like an educational campaign and more like a genuine storytelling property that children would enjoy watching,” said Merchant.
She added, “Together, we developed the creative platform, characters, narrative structure, and visual identity of the series. This included creating Mayed as the central character alongside other relatable characters, building the wider world around him, and developing a claymation-inspired aesthetic that would feel distinctive, memorable, and emotionally engaging.”
Assembly Global supported the media strategy and amplification of the campaign.
Meeting people where they are through content and storytelling
Lost in Translation was intentionally designed for multiple audiences. The primary audience is children and young people growing up in the UAE, both Emirati and expatriate, who experience life between different languages and cultures.
The campaign also caters to parents, particularly families seeking meaningful ways to connect their children with Arabic language, Emirati culture and local heritage.
Additionally, the campaign speaks to educators, school leaders and the wider UAE community by demonstrating how language learning can be approached through creativity, storytelling, and cultural relevance rather than traditional instructional methods alone.
Merchant said, “‘Lost in Translation’ was designed as a bridge between communities, creating shared moments that resonate across cultures while celebrating the UAE’s national language. One of the most powerful insights was that children rarely develop a love for language through instruction alone. They develop it through stories, characters, humour, friendships and cultural experiences that feel relevant to their lives.”
She added, “We also recognised that Emirati parents increasingly want their children to remain connected to their cultural roots while navigating a globalised world. At the same time, many expatriate families are looking for more meaningful ways for their children to understand the culture of the country they call home.”
These insights led to an important creative conclusion: if GEMS Education wanted children to engage with Arabic differently, the brand needed to meet them where they already are through content and storytelling.
As such, Mayed was developed as a relatable Emirati protagonist whose everyday experiences could naturally showcase language, culture, family values, humour, and the small moments that shape childhood. His stories allow audiences to experience Arabic as part of everyday life and as a shared cultural experience rather than as a lesson.
Merchant added, “The claymation-inspired visual style was also a deliberate choice. We wanted a creative world that felt warm, memorable, emotionally engaging, and universally appealing across age groups and cultural backgrounds. Through humour, family dynamics, school-life moments, and relatable characters, we wanted to show Arabic as something that belongs in everyday conversations and connections.”
The success of the campaign is being measured across both marketing and longer-term brand objectives.
In the short term, GEMS Education is tracking audience reach, engagement, video views, watch-through rates, social interaction, shares, saves, earned media coverage and overall audience sentiment.
However, the more meaningful indicators sit beyond traditional campaign metrics.
Merchant explained, “We are interested in how effectively the series sparks conversations around Arabic language and culture; how audiences respond to the characters and stories; and whether the campaign helps create stronger emotional connections with Arabic among both Emirati and expatriate audiences.”
Long term, success will also be measured through awareness and perception of the GEMS Centre of Excellence for Arabic Language and Culture and its wider mission to transform Arabic-language learning through innovation, immersion and cultural engagement.
CREDITS:
Client: GEMS Education
Creative agency: Sweetwater MEA
Media agency: Assembly Global
