See It, Be It 2024: Mayara Ribeiro

Mayara Ribeiro is an associate creative director at the largest independent agency in Brazil, Galeria.Ag, and took to social media after learning she'd be included in Cannes Lions' See It, Be It scheme for 2024: "When I received the news that I had been selected for SIBI I thought: WTF, I made it!"

From humble beginnings with, in her words, "all the statistics going against me", Mayara made her way into the industry through scholarships and hard work, taking a leap by moving to São Paulo after college to pursue her dream, despite being penniless.

After copywriting for the likes of Media.Monks, Y&R, DAVID and Ogilvy over the last decade, she's made it a priority to give back and help other less fortunate creatives get a foothold in the industry through teaching - both at the Miami Ad School and at Escola Rua, "the first creativity school focused on promoting diversity, inclusion and equity in the advertising market" -  a company which she co-founded.

Speaking to LBB as a See It, Be It participant today, she tells women to not settle for anything less than gender equality, and to refuse to be put in a box by the industry: "Girls, never let anyone diminish your strength and talent."

See it 

Tell us about a woman who has inspired you in your career!

[Media.Monks ECD] Luciana Haguiara was a great inspiration to me, with an extremely humanised management style, opening doors for people from different backgrounds and showing them that it's possible to achieve their goals. She dedicated much of her time to teaching me, providing weekly 1:1 mentorship meetings and sharing much of what she learned in her many years of working. 

Be it 

How have you incorporated the lessons and insights you gained from women in your life and in creative/professional fields into how you approach life and your career?

When we are women, they try to put us in boxes, telling us how we should act and how we should be: that we should be tougher, more serious, less affectionate. But I learned from my professional inspirations that I can be who I am and still achieve my goals, that I don't need to fit into a standard and that I should never stop believing that diversity, inclusion, equity and humanised management are the path to change. 

The best way to honour my story is to inspire and teach other women with the same difficult background to be even better than me. Even though I am a fairly new leader, who still has a lot to learn, I can guarantee I'll never settle for anything less than gender equality and representation. 

Do it 

How does that translate into the work? Tell us about some of the campaigns you've been involved in that you're really proud of. What challenges did you overcome to bring them to life? 

Recently I created the award-winning ‘The Pride Research’ campaign for Havaianas. President Bolsonaro prohibited the 2022 census from asking questions about the LGBTQ+ population; the government tried to silence protesters with numbers from a 2019 national health survey claiming that there are only 2.9 million LGBTQ+ people in Brazil. So, Havaianas, the most loved brand in Brazil and the biggest supporter of the LGBTQ+ community, decided to respond to Brazil's homophobic government with the biggest demographic survey ever done in Brazil proving this number goes up to more than 15.5 million people total.

The survey provided insights into the areas in which the community needs support and served as a basis for promoting relevant changes. At the moment, the numbers have already been used by other major companies, such as Unilever and Burger King, as well as by the government itself. 

Share it 

What messages or words of advice do you have for the next generation of women coming into the industry? And tell us about anything that you do to support and lift up women in the industry! 

Girls, never let anyone diminish your strength and talent. The path within agencies may still be a bit tough, sexism still exists, there are still few female leaders, but you are part of the change and in the near future, you will be occupying positions that will make this industry more egalitarian and more creative. 

See It, Be It is a LIONS initiative aiming to achieve equal gender representation among creative directors and leaders across the global industry. The programme is open to all women, trans-identifying and non-binary people. For any enquiries, please get in touch at seeitbeit@canneslions.com. 

Further information on applying for See It Be It 2025 can be found here.