AceEase
Brand & campaign strategy
PROJECT TYPE
Professional experience · Remote employee
YEAR
AREA OF WORK
Brand & campaign strategy
FOCUS
Womenswear / activewear
Overview
From December 2025 to April 2026, I worked remotely as a Project-based Marketing & Communications Associate at ZIPCORE. I supported brand development and US launch planning and execution for AceEase, a Milan-based women’s activewear label, including its Spring/Summer 2026 collections. My work covered consumer research, positioning, brand naming, and campaign planning.
From December 2025 to April 2026, I worked remotely as a Project-based Marketing & Communications Associate at ZIPCORE. I supported brand development and US launch planning and execution for AceEase, a Milan-based women’s activewear label, including its Spring/Summer 2026 collections. My work covered consumer research, positioning, brand naming, and campaign planning.
The challenge
We began with off-the-shelf cultural-value models. After the first round of testing, the output was too broad to act on — it described American women who like sport, not the Tenniscore community the brand actually needed to reach. A framework that cannot see a subculture cannot tell a brand what to say.
We began with off-the-shelf cultural-value models. After the first round of testing, the output was too broad to act on — it described American women who like sport, not the Tenniscore community the brand actually needed to reach. A framework that cannot see a subculture cannot tell a brand what to say.
Approach
I proposed supplementing the generic model with digital-behaviour analysis on Instagram and TikTok, where this subculture actually performs itself. Once approved, I helped define the sampling logic — ten Tenniscore keywords, expanded search, Instagram weighted above TikTok — and, with a colleague, processed roughly 4,000 posts and 10,000 comments across a twelve-month window.
From that material I developed four new dimensions — origins and drivers, symbolic systems, behaviours and rituals, lifecycle — with their scoring rubrics, folded into an eight-dimension framework. I then led validation: 15 in-depth interviews and 113 survey responses.
The most useful correction came out of that validation. Symbolic systems had started as a purely visual dimension, and several interviewees called the result fake. Pushing on why, I found the codes were grammatical rather than visual: Tenniscore is the ease of someone who just came off court and stopped for a drink, not a pleated skirt. Rewriting the dimension around that changed what the brand could credibly look like.
Campaign execution: My naming strategy was adopted in the final plan. The “Design Council” community co-creation initiative I proposed was launched. I helped refine messaging through two rounds with panels of around 15 creators, and the final campaign used a message emphasising women’s creativity. I also planned the “Last Night” and “Clay” Spring/Summer 2026 drops. The Spring/Summer communications campaign was executed, and I collaborated with six nano-KOLs on product seeding.
I proposed supplementing the generic model with digital-behaviour analysis on Instagram and TikTok, where this subculture actually performs itself. Once approved, I helped define the sampling logic — ten Tenniscore keywords, expanded search, Instagram weighted above TikTok — and, with a colleague, processed roughly 4,000 posts and 10,000 comments across a twelve-month window.
From that material I developed four new dimensions — origins and drivers, symbolic systems, behaviours and rituals, lifecycle — with their scoring rubrics, folded into an eight-dimension framework. I then led validation: 15 in-depth interviews and 113 survey responses.
The most useful correction came out of that validation. Symbolic systems had started as a purely visual dimension, and several interviewees called the result fake. Pushing on why, I found the codes were grammatical rather than visual: Tenniscore is the ease of someone who just came off court and stopped for a drink, not a pleated skirt. Rewriting the dimension around that changed what the brand could credibly look like.
Campaign execution: My naming strategy was adopted in the final plan. The “Design Council” community co-creation initiative I proposed was launched. I helped refine messaging through two rounds with panels of around 15 creators, and the final campaign used a message emphasising women’s creativity. I also planned the “Last Night” and “Clay” Spring/Summer 2026 drops. The Spring/Summer communications campaign was executed, and I collaborated with six nano-KOLs on product seeding.
Gallery
