As the first-ever Barbour College Brand Ambassadors, juniors Emily Wilson, MCAS ’16, and Gabriella Candelieri, MCAS ’17, have been chosen from a pool of six candidates to spread the brand around BC’s campus.
BC was chosen as the one Boston school to launch Barbour’s College Brand Ambassadors Program. The closest Barbour store to BC is on Newbury St.
The program is an initiative meant to help grow the Barbour brand. Wilson and Candelieri are officially doing their internship with Barbour’s public relations firm, Cone Communications. Barbour is a family owned clothing and accessories business that began in 1894 in South Shields, a town in England.
Barbour’s vision is to be recognized as the best British lifestyle brand in the world by 2020, and its mission is to build a long term, sustainable business.
“They were looking at a Boston School and BC’s traditional values lined up with Barbour’s.”
The company hopes to be able to honor the Barbour family values and the British heritage, while providing quality products with excellent customer service.
“They were looking into all the Boston schools because their PR firm, Cone Communications, where we’re officially doing our internship, is based out of Boston,” Wilson said. “They were looking at a Boston School and BC’s traditional values lined up with Barbour’s.”
Out of the six Brand Ambassador interviews that were conducted, Wilson and Candelieri were chosen for the position based on prior experience.
Wilson participated in the Nordstrom Fashion Board Program for three years during high school and Candelieri had worked at Regan Communications, a public relations firm.
Wilson and Candelieri are tasked with driving up brand interest on BC’s campus through blogs, social media, and various events. They started a selfie campaign to get the word that Barbour is at BC onto social media. When students see Wilson or Candelieri on campus, take a selfie with either of them, and then post it on social media with the hashtag #BarbourBC, they can receive 15 percent off at the Barbour store on Newbury Street.
Their first event as Barbour College Brand Ambassadors was a Women in Business event on Nov. 2. This event attracted over 100 attendees, setting the record for the largest WIB event, after the general information meeting at the beginning of the year.
The event featured Barbour’s U.S. Director of Marketing, Elissa Millican, who gave a talk about the trajectory of her career, and her experiences when she worked at Puma. Now, Wilson and Candelieri are busy planning an in-store event at Barbour on Dec. 3.
“It’s supposed to be like a little party,” said Candelieri. “There’s going to be hot chocolate, cookies, other snacks, BC balloons, and even custom made BC M&Ms. It should be really fun.”
Featured Image courtesy steve-lovelace.com
