February 28th, 2024 ― Social Capital
Purplewashing: what is it and how to avoid it?
Sarah Babineau is one of those content creators all brands dream of having in their circle. She’s been working with Oatbox for a year now, putting the company’s values and brand essence in images. Sarah is our content creator for the month of November.
Granola
Many know Sarah through her Instagram account, which is defined by authenticity, pastel colors and straight lines. She enjoys that through it, we can discover new local coffee shops or travel to new destinations.
Sarah explored several work environments before finding what truly animated her. After three years in graphic design, taking cinema and art courses and even trying on digital communication, she realized that she it’s not what she was passionate about.
« I told myself that if I had not found my passion yet, it was perhaps because what I wanted to do didn’t exist.
It’s during a school exchange in Bordeaux that Sarah first got into photography and found her unique style. The company Mimi Hammer helped her to get noticed. Sharing common values, Sarah and Mimi Hammer worked together several times to create the lookbooks for the brand.
Mimi Hammer Lookbook
Sarah Babineau
She finally met the Oatbox team in July 2015 during a yoga event hosted by Lululemon. That’s how they noticed her work and started collaborating together.
« The imposter syndrome is very present in our generation. We have the impression that we have no right to do what we are doing because most of the time, we create gradually as the market changes.
Oatbox were among the early adopters of the content creation trend that was slowly coming together.
Sarah believes that her work has considerably evolved since she joined the Oatbox team. It first started with a small production of an Instagram picture a day, and evolved to setting up influencer-driven events such as the Silver Spoon Collective.
Oatbox
Sarah Babineau
Living an experience
With Sarah’s help, the Oatbox team launched the Silver Spoon Collective, a brand activation which intends to build a community around the art of breakfast. Sarah’s mission? To turn this event into an irreproducible experience for the guests influencers. The first edition was an autumn brunch taking place in the Michel Jodoin’s ciders orchards, while the second was held in the fields of the Lavender House.
« It’s fine to send boxes of our products to influencers, but at some point we realized that we also wanted them to experience something bigger than that.
Being herself an instagrammer, this allows her to have a clearer vision of the kind of events in which influencers like to participate.
« If you want to get people to connect with your brand and your product, you have to let them experience something special.You have to create an experience they’ll be able talk about.
From the moment the Silver Spoon Collective was born, Sarah took on more responsibilities in establishing relationships with various Quebec’s influencers.
Swipe right for more pictures!
Growing with a company
Sarah confesses Oatbox has greatly rubbed off on her and her creative process. She somehow became an ambassador of the brand and her IG gallery gradually became a caneva similar to the one it offered.
« Oatbox understands that I must be able to work on my personal brand to remain relevant to the evolution of our strategy.
On the side, she also began to do some consulting and workshops in order to educate companies on the importance of content creation. Her network of content creators is very broad, which allows her to recommend the right person for these brands to work with.
→ Must read: Meet Ali Inay, founder of #MtlCafeCrawl
Mutual collaboration
Sarah strongly believes in the value of helping others. As the content creators community is relatively small in Montreal, it's easy to step on someone’s toes. This is why respecting other’s content became a fundamental value.
Sarah admits she has an “Instagram husband” that helps her enormously. It's going to be three years soon that he did not eat a warm plate she says laughing out loud.
Producing an Instagram photo with the perfect composition may seem easy for some, but there is often much more work behind it than one can imagine.
« It’s important to humanize our Instagram account. With Oatbox, it’s essential for us to show that there are passionate people working behind the product.
Swipe right for more pictures!
Inspiration in everyday life
Sarah is attracted by everything that's framed, straight lines and clean spaces. She admits however for not having this minimalist aesthetic on her personal account. She’s inspired by accounts such as @jeannemap, @thefashionmedley and @bliu07, who showcase a city guide, interior design and flatlays approach.
« When I visit a new city I will first have consulted at least 150 Instagram accounts of people who live in this city.
As for her gallery, she likes to have fun with interior design and coffee corners, which she says are her most popular publications.
« Every content creator has his strengths and for myself it’s what is related to lifestyle.
Swipe right for more pictures!
Sarah considers her captions to be really important since they allow her to add vision to her content. The same photo used with a different caption can be completely different.
« I would say that the text helps me in revealing who I really am versus what I might projects.
Sarah is inspiring by both her work and her contagious good spirit. For her, there is no limit to her work.
« Content creation is a new job and I find it fun to be among the front-line players.
