Case Study
Australian L’Alpina × Octopus
Tennis Heritage. Streetwear Energy. One Visible Brand.
The Brief
Australian L’Alpina — the classic Italian tenniswear label founded in Turin — partnered with Milanese streetwear collective Octopus for Disorder on the Court!: a capsule collection uniting sport and street style.
Harton Works was asked to lead the UK launch, building awareness and visibility ahead of the Carnaby Street flagship opening and translating L’Alpina’s Italian heritage for a new, culturally fluent audience.
Client
Sector
Sports and Fashion
Services
Paid Media
Cultural Positioning
Early Predictive Optimisation
Region
UK / National
While L’Alpina’s logo and kangaroo emblem carried instant recognition in Italy, UK visibility was almost non-existent outside specialist tennis circles.
The task:
1. Reintroduce the brand to a generation raised on Palace, NikeCourt, and BOSS Athleisure.
2. Preserve authenticity while adapting tone and imagery for streetwear culture.
3. Generate momentum that would carry into the Carnaby Street retail launch.
The campaign needed to perform across paid media and the emerging AI-assisted discovery landscape, where social algorithms and conversational interfaces increasingly shaped brand visibility.
The Strategy
1. Cultural Positioning
We reframed *Court Culture* as the meeting point between tennis heritage and modern streetwear, positioning L’Alpina not as nostalgia, but as a return to form.
2. Audience & Entity Mapping
Through social-listening data and search insight, we identified shared entity clusters — tennis, street style, Italian fashion, Carnaby Street, London — that would anchor relevance across both human and machine discovery systems.
3. Integrated Paid Media
We launched multi-platform campaigns across Instagram, Facebook, and Google PPC, timing drops around key sport and fashion moments to maximise awareness and intent.
4. Influencer Activation
Working with creators who bridged sport and fashion — from emerging tennis photographers to UK streetwear stylists — we built reach and credibility simultaneously.
5. Creative & Store Launch
Content featured Italian players Giulio Perego and Filippo Speziali, photographed by Edward Scheller against a mix of classic courts and urban London backdrops. Geo-targeted and retargeted ads drove traffic to the Carnaby Street flagship during its first month of opening.
6. Early Predictive Optimisation
Structured metadata and consistent naming ensured the collection was surfaced not only in search and shopping feeds but also in early conversational engines testing apparel and collaboration queries.
Turning Story into Signal
"The success of Australian × Octopus wasn’t just about reach. It worked because the story made sense to both people and platforms. Algorithms don’t amplify what they can’t interpret." — Martin Jeffrey, Harton Works 2025
Results
→ +52% increase in branded UK searches during campaign period
→ Strong Carnaby Street launch traffic and sell-through during first month
→ Coverage across sports and lifestyle outlets (Hypebeast, Complex, Tennishead)
→ Growing presence in social and conversational discovery surfaces
Why It Worked?
The campaign didn’t just promote a product; it rebuilt a cultural narrative. By merging creative storytelling with early retrieval-friendly structure, Australian L’Alpina became visible across both human and algorithmic channels — establishing a blueprint for future Retrieval-First™ launches.
Early Retrieval-First™ Insight
Long before Retrieval-First™ had a name, the principle was already in place: treat every creative asset as data, and every data point as a story. That’s how an Italian heritage brand became retrievable in London street culture.
Let’s make your brand retrievable.
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