BU students spearhead public relations campaign for medical apparel brand

Students at Boston University’s student-staffed public relations agency are partnering with VERDE, a clothing brand specializing in scrub tops, pants, accessories and lab and utility jackets for healthcare professionals.

Account Supervisor for VERDE’s PRLab team Yadira Cabrera said the team is working on a promotional video featuring BU pre-health students wearing the scrubs to be posted on their client’s Instagram account @verdescrubs. The photographers were BU students as well, Cabrera said.

“We authentically let them say how they feel, what they think about what they’re wearing,” said Cabrera, a junior in the College of Communication. “We made sure to incorporate BU talent.”

Account Executive Han Chang, a senior in COM, manages marketing, press and social media aspects of the brand. Chang said PRLab gives her good professional experience in the field, which she says is a necessity.

“So far, what we have learned in class is all kind of theoretical,” Chang said. “We would never get experience in the real world.”

For a pop-up event on campus, Cabrera said, they modified their initial idea to pass out VERDE notebooks and pens, based on their client’s core mission of sustainability and fighting fast fashion.

“To find sustainable notebooks, for example, we reached out to the sustainability organization at BU to see what they use for their products,” said Cabrera, who oversees the team, organizes action item lists and is responsible for editing and final approvals.

Account Executive Joshua Toledo, a senior in COM, said working with an apparel company allowed the PRLab team to create “media assets,” such as photos.

“Just being in the fashion space really allowed us to flex those creative muscles and gain a little bit of expertise,” Toledo said. “We conducted an entire photoshoot, which we probably wouldn’t have otherwise gotten the chance to if we were working with, say, a non-profit.”

VERDE’s consumer audience is healthcare professionals, but the PRLab team’s campaign focused on young people like pre-med students, Toledo said.

“[We’re] trying to start that brand awareness and brand loyalty really young,” Toledo said. “If you’ve got kids on the pre-med track and they haven’t given much thought to what kind of scrubs they’re gonna wear … make sure they know the name VERDE.”

Cabrera and Toledo said their client’s designs are versatile — designed to be worn on and off duty — and inspired by streetwear, creating a modern look and comfortable fit.

The scrubs are high quality, Toledo said, and each listing on their website includes the number of plastic bottles recycled into the fabric of the clothing item. The scrubs are currently only available in men’s sizes, Cabrera said, but women’s sizes are in the works.

Toledo said VERDE’s founders, Scott White, Tony Ngo and Hai Ngo — two of whom have been executives at top fashion houses — were very down-to-earth and encouraging. White was like a mentor to the team, Toledo said.

“He really wanted to help a younger generation really flex their muscles,” Toledo said. “They knew the limitations of what it was like to have a student PR agency … they really were trying to foster a sense of wonderment and expand our capabilities.”