Sarah Besson Vigo — Brand Strategist Portfolio

Brand Strategist · Toronto · 2026
SARAHBESSON
VIGO
Toronto, ON
Paris, FR
FR · EN · ES
Centdegrés, Paris

I came to strategy through curiosity, not a plan. I build brand thinking that earns its place in culture.

01 — About

ABOUT ME

I moved from Paris to Toronto because I was curious about what a new market, a new creative culture, and a new city could teach me.

Two years of agency experience at Centdegrés — brand platforms, consumer research, workshops for international clients. The last few months doing that same work independently, for small brands I believe in.

I'm drawn to strategy that earns its place in culture. Rigorous enough to hold up. Human enough to actually land.

[ ADD PHOTO ]

02 — How I work

THE WAY I THINK

I start by getting uncomfortable with the brief. The interesting problem is always one layer underneath.

01DISCOVERY

Understand brand, goals, audience. History before opinion.

02RESEARCH

Find friction, not confirmation. Benchmarks are a start, not an answer.

03WRITING

Manifesto, verbatim, brief. Writing is how I find out if the strategy holds.

04FEEDBACK

Refine in collaboration. Work lands when the client feels ownership too.

05DELIVERY

High-quality decks and presentations. Making creative work easier.

03 — Transferable intelligence

WHAT HOSPITALITY TAUGHT ME

Server. Barista. Cook. Bartender. Mixologist. Manager.
Across France and Canada.

Before strategy had a name for it, I was doing consumer research on my feet. These roles were an education in human behavior at its most unfiltered — and the skills they built are the same ones strategy demands.

READ THE ROOM

Years of reading tables and bars trained the same muscle strategy needs: understanding what people actually want, which is almost never what they say.

THE PRODUCT HAS TO BE GOOD

The food still has to be delicious. Once it is, the room, the light, the way a question is asked — that's what makes it unforgettable. Experience amplifies quality. It never replaces it.

ATTENTION IS THE PRODUCT

Before the drink, the dish, the experience — there is the moment someone feels seen. That moment shapes everything. It's true in restaurants. It's true in brand.

04 — Selected works at Centdegrés

SELECTED WORKS

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MERCEDES-BENZ
Strategy Copy Writing Ad Campaign

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The tension: a car brand entering beauty

Mercedes isn't a scent brand. It's a symbol brand. The three-pointed star always stood for land, sea, air. Instead of inventing a new story for beauty, we went back to the original one.

Three fragrances. Three elements. Three versions of the same man.

MY CONTRIBUTION

Brand history research. Persona development connected to each element. Consumer behavior on fragrance layering and collecting. Campaign verbatim writing.

SIMONE MAHLER
Brand Platform Copy Writing Product Architecture Workshops

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The tension: 60 years of heritage buried under generic positioning

The founder's obsession with skin expertise was exactly what today's skincare-literate consumer craves. We reframed the salon — not as a place to be beautified, but as a place to be taught.

Beauty as transmission.

MY CONTRIBUTION

Brand history research. SWOT. Customer interviews. Service testing (I went to the salon). Workshop facilitation with the client. Full brand platform and product architecture categorized by need.

INNERSKIN
Brand Platform. Copy Writing. Visual Identity

Demystifying aesthetic medicine for younger generations in France. Research on cultural attitudes toward enhancement. Tone of voice development.

CITY OF PARIS
Manifesto. Copy Writing. Visual Identity. Editing

A framework for the Paris of tomorrow, without erasing what makes it Paris. Interviews with historians, architects, urban planners, and citizens.

05 — Current projects

WHAT I'M WORKING ON

Independent strategy for early-stage founders. Building the thinking from scratch.

Multidisciplinary design studio
FURNITURE. PHOTO. PRINTS

A brand built around a productive tension: good design makes you live in the moment and remember it forever.

Positioning. Research. Messaging. Visual identity direction

Curated gift box brand
WOMEN-OWNED. COMMUNITY

Two best friends building a gifting brand rooted in memory, intention, and a community of women entrepreneurs.

Naming strategy. Positioning. Research. Messaging

Event mixology, Toronto
SOLO MIXOLOGIST

Building the brand foundation for a solo mixologist entering the Toronto market. From name to narrative.

Naming. Positioning. Visual direction. Messaging

MOCK BRIEF
THE BROADVIEW
HOTEL
Toronto, 1891 · Renovated 2017 · 10-Year Anniversary Campaign, 2027

Built in 1891 at Queen and Broadview, the hotel has lived many lives. Since its 2017 restoration, it has become a cultural landmark for Riverside — a place locals and visitors pass through at meaningful moments.

For the 10-year anniversary: don't celebrate the building. Celebrate what happens inside it. The Broadview isn't a hotel. It's the beginning of a lot of Toronto stories.

"WHERE THE STORY STARTS."

Brand platform. Campaign concept. Cultural positioning. Manifesto. Multi-channel activation.

Writing my thoughts

PAPERS ON THINGS I CAN'T STOP THINKING ABOUT

Not trend reports. Attempts to understand why certain things matter.

Hospitality and culture
IS HOSPITALITY THE NEXT CULTURAL POWER?

A benchmark and analysis of its marketing opportunities, and limits. A trend that could be a vector of societal change, or not.

Psychology and culture
CATS AS CATALYSTS

Analysis on independence, love, respect, and determination. (Yes, this is a strategy paper.)

Movement and resistance
"MAY I HAVE THIS DANCE?"

Dancing as an act of revolution and self-expression in today's society.

06 — A note on being new here

WHAT 2 YEARS IN CANADA TAUGHT ME

Moving to Toronto was a deliberate act of curiosity. I wanted to understand a new market, a different creative culture, a city that holds more contradictions than it lets on.

Canada has an interesting relationship with its own identity — proud but understated, multicultural by nature and still figuring out what that means in culture and in brand. That tension is strategically rich. Two years in, I've started to see the patterns. That's when things get interesting.

LET'S MAKE
SOMETHING
SPECIAL.

I'm looking for a team that's trying to make something that actually matters. If that's you — let's talk.