Digital Agency of Record for Gables Residential
A four-year partnership spanning brand strategy, website redesign, iPad sales application, analytics dashboards, and companywide social media launch — saving over $1 million in advertising costs in the first year alone.
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$1M+
Ad Cost Savings Year 1
35%
Organic Lead Increase
31.5K
Apartment Homes
500K
Sq Ft Retail Space
A luxury brand competing on price in a digital world it didn't yet own
Gables Residential manages over 31,500 apartment homes and 500,000 square feet of retail space across high-growth Southeast markets. Despite a premium brand and best-in-class properties, Gables faced a set of compounding digital challenges that were costing them millions.
Expensive Ad Dependency
Gables was locked into costly subscription-based listing services — the apartment industry equivalent of paying rent on someone else's platform. Every lead came at a premium, and Gables had no owned channel to reduce that cost.
Invisible to Organic Search
The existing site wasn't structured for search engines. No dynamic landing pages, no clean link architecture, no property data exposed to crawlers. Prospects searching "apartments near Emory" or "luxury rentals Buckhead" never found Gables.
Paper-Based Leasing Process
Leasing associates gave tours, then returned to a desk to manually enter prospect data, print brochures, and schedule follow-ups. Every tour ended with the prospect walking away while the associate did data entry — losing momentum at the critical moment.
No Brand Differentiation Online
In a market where every competitor's website looked the same — stock photos, generic search bars, identical layouts — Gables' premium positioning didn't translate to digital. Gen-Y renters couldn't tell Gables apart from the next listing.
A true Agency of Record partnership — not a vendor engagement
From 2010 to 2014, Digital Scientists served as Gables Residential's Digital Agency of Record — a relationship that went far beyond building a website. We embedded with their marketing, operations, and leasing teams to rethink how a luxury apartment brand shows up digitally, from the first Google search to the signed lease.
The engagement began with a destination workshop and brand positioning exercise, followed by competitive research across the Southeast multifamily market, stakeholder mapping, and user interviews with leasing associates and apartment seekers. We defined three strategic concepts — "Start at Gables" (make Gables.com the starting point for apartment search), "Social Life at Gables" (build community-driven social proof), and "Find the Perfect Fit" (create a page for every unit with rich detail and reviews) — then executed against all three.
What followed was a phased delivery that touched every digital surface: a search-focused web application, a mobile-optimized experience, an iPad sales application that transformed the leasing process, analytics dashboards that proved ROI, and a companywide social media launch.
The result: a cost-per-lease model that bypassed expensive subscription services, saving over $1 million in advertising costs in the first year and driving a 35% increase in organic leads in the first quarter after launch.
Before we designed anything, we learned the business
We began with a destination workshop and brand positioning exercise — understanding what business Gables is really in, who the target renter is, how they want to think and feel about the brand, and what actions the digital experience should drive. We then conducted competitive analysis across the Southeast multifamily market and mapped every stakeholder touchpoint from first search to signed lease.
Brand Positioning Framework
Destination Workshop
Defined brand positioning, target personas, emotional vs. functional benefits, and competitive frame of reference
Competitive Analysis
Benchmarked digital presence across Southeast multifamily competitors to identify differentiation gaps
User Research
Interviewed leasing associates, marketing teams, and apartment seekers to map the full prospect journey
Technical Assessment
Evaluated existing technology, data sources, and integration points to define the technical architecture
Three strategic concepts emerged
Start at Gables
Like Progressive Insurance proved with auto search, there's a distinct advantage to making consumers start their apartment search at your site, not a listing aggregator. Own the top of the funnel.
Social Life at Gables
Create an online community that provides the "social proof" potential renters are looking for. Residents sharing their experience is more credible than any marketing copy.
Find the Perfect Fit
Create a page for every apartment unit with enhanced data, floor plans, photos, and the ability to support reviews and social sharing. Make each unit discoverable and desirable.
From strategy to launch in two disciplined phases
We structured the engagement into a Scoping & Planning phase (strategy, architecture, wireframes) followed by a multi-stream Implementation phase. This ensured we had the right strategy before writing a single line of code.
Scoping & Planning
Marketing asset assessment & strategy
Destination workshops, positioning statements, competitor analysis
Technology & data evaluation
Current systems, data sources, integration points, technical architecture
User stories & wireframes
12 layouts defining scope for Gables.com, GCA, and Gables Urban
Implementation
Creative direction & visual design
12 template layouts from creative brief, 2 rounds of revision per layout
Multi-platform development
Gables.com, mobile site, iPad app, analytics dashboards, CMS
QA, training & launch
Testing against user stories, documentation, team training, go-live
Six workstreams, one unified digital presence
As Digital Agency of Record, we didn't just deliver one project — we orchestrated six interconnected workstreams that together transformed how Gables finds, engages, and converts apartment seekers.
Corporate Website Redesign
Rebuilt Gables.com as a search-focused web application with dynamic landing pages by location and keyword, SEO-friendly link structure, bold lifestyle photography, and a modern aesthetic designed for Gen-Y apartment seekers. Every property page was crafted to convert.
iPad Sales Application
Purpose-built tablet app that put every leasing tool at an associate's fingertips — real-time unit availability, interactive floor plans with pinch-zoom, automated CRM workflows, digital lease applications, and prepopulated forms that eliminated end-of-day data entry.
Mobile Website
With mobile traffic growing rapidly across Gables properties, we built a mobile-optimized Gables.com with responsive search, property detail pages, floor plans, and contact integration — designed for apartment hunters searching on the go.
Analytics & ROI Dashboard
Built a lead-to-lease customer dashboard with custom APIs that tracked every touchpoint — from first site visit through signed lease. This gave Gables the data to prove their cost-per-lease model outperformed paid listing services.
Brand Strategy & Positioning
Led destination workshops to define Gables' brand positioning, communication strategy, and point of difference. Developed positioning statements and competitive frame of reference that informed every design decision across the engagement.
Social Media Launch
Launched social media companywide from scratch — developing the strategy, content playbook, and integration with property pages. Social content was woven into the website experience to provide the community "social proof" that drives leasing decisions.
iPad sales app: everything a leasing associate needs
Before the iPad app, a tour ended when the prospect walked out the door. The associate then sat down to manually enter contact info, print brochures, and queue follow-up emails. By the time they finished, the prospect was already visiting the next property. We designed a new workflow from the ground up.
The new leasing workflow
We collaborated with Gables' technical, operations, and sales teams to understand every step of the leasing process, then designed an iPad-enabled sales workflow that keeps the associate engaged with the prospect from greeting through lease application.
Guided sales checklist — walks associates through the complete process from community amenities to lease application, ensuring nothing gets missed
Real-time availability — live unit data with interactive floor plan previews and pinch-zoom, so associates can answer "is this one available?" instantly during the tour
Automated follow-ups — brochure and thank-you note mailings trigger automatically via CRM integration the moment a tour ends
Zero data entry — prepopulated forms eliminate the manual data entry associates used to do at end of day, freeing them to focus on the next prospect
Unified prospect data — custom APIs pull prospect information from web, email, and phone channels into a single view
A search-focused web application that owns the top of the funnel
We redesigned Gables.com as a search-driven experience built on the "Start at Gables" concept — the idea that if you make apartment search fast and beautiful enough, prospects will start their journey at Gables.com rather than a listing aggregator.
Bold lifestyle photography immerses users in the Gables experience. A modern, utilitarian aesthetic targets Gen-Y renters. And a sophisticated SEO strategy makes every property discoverable.
SEO & Dynamic Landing Pages
Location-based and keyword-driven landing pages (e.g., "apartments near Emory"), clean link structure, and property data exposed to search engines — the technical foundation for a 35% organic lead increase.
Mobile-First Experience
Responsive search, property details, floor plans, and contact forms for mobile browsers — addressing the rapid growth of mobile traffic across Gables' portfolio.
Content Management System
Custom CMS for site admins to manage dynamic and static content without development requests — giving marketing autonomy over messaging, promotions, and property updates.
Resident Portal Integration
Existing resident portal restyled to match the new brand identity, with social media content pulled into property pages for community engagement.
Built for scale across 31,500 units and six product surfaces
The technical architecture needed to serve multiple products — corporate website, mobile site, iPad app, analytics dashboard, CMS, and social integrations — from a unified data layer. We selected technologies that balanced rapid development with long-term maintainability.
Custom APIs connected the iPad app, website, and analytics dashboard to property management systems, CRM, and third-party data sources like Vaultware, creating a single source of truth for unit availability, pricing, and prospect data.
Ruby on Rails
Backend & API Layer
EmberJS
Frontend Application
Sphinx Search
Full-Text Search Engine
Custom APIs
CRM & PMS Integration
iOS / iPad Native
Sales Application
Custom CMS
Content Management
Every challenge answered with measurable outcomes
The results traced directly back to the challenges we set out to solve. Gables moved from ad dependency to organic growth, from paper-based leasing to digital workflows, and from invisible search presence to top-of-funnel ownership.
$1M+
Advertising Cost Savings
In the first year, a cost-per-lease model bypassed expensive subscription-based listing services, saving over $1 million in advertising costs. The "Start at Gables" strategy made the owned channel the primary lead source.
35%
Organic Lead Growth
In the first quarter after launch, organic leads grew 35% — a direct result of the SEO-driven architecture, dynamic landing pages, and clean link structure that made every Gables property discoverable.
Sales Process Transformed
iPad app eliminated manual data entry and automated follow-ups, letting associates focus on relationships rather than paperwork.
Brand Differentiation Achieved
Bold photography, modern aesthetic, and community-driven social content set Gables apart in a market of identical apartment websites.
Marketing Independence
Custom CMS and analytics dashboards gave marketing teams full autonomy over content, promotions, and performance measurement without development requests.
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