Michelle Melky’s Cannes Diary #2: Heavy hitters, expert pitching advice and big Brazilian energy

Michelle Melky, Global Creative Director at Amplify, is one of the Australian representatives at the Cannes Lions Creative Academy. In her second entry for CB, Michelle reflects on a powerhouse day of inspiration.

“The brief was not a test, and you didn’t fail.” Now that’s a way to win a room of creatives. Day 2 in the Creative Academy was absolutely stacked with heavy hitters. There must have been 50 Gold Lions between today’s speaker and each delivered unique and personal perspectives.

First we heard from Joana Mendes, CCO of Jungle Kid. She shared the details of her career journey, and encouraged us to follow the non linear path. I particularly loved that her resume included “started a basketball team” – does it get any cooler?

Next we heard from Stephen “Ste” Rogers the Creative Director of Droga5 Dublin. This talk somehow transformed from advice on dealing with anxiety, to some of the best tips on pitching I’ve ever received. Ste was totally enthralling to listen to. He really drove home that developing creative is, more or less, built to give you anxiety and you’re not crazy for feeling that way. My key takeaway was that each rejection is actually a step forward to cracking the grief.

Ste was followed by another Irish legend Ger Roe, Board Creative Director of Publicis Dublin. Ger gave us an overview of what I’m sure is about to be an award winning campaign Heineken Succession – and he did so about one hour after presenting it for Titanium consideration. Did I not say heavy hitters? Ger offered up practical advice on getting big ideas across the line with clients, and demonstrated the art and power of an incredible case study video.

We rounded out the day with Sandrine Le Goff, ECD at LePub Amsterdam. Sandrine is the only person to have won a Lion as a client then on agency side, and her unique creative voice came across in her talk. I’ll be trying her exercise of “treating myself as a brand” as a way to find my own creative voice.

Our last activity of the day was an interactive one with Giulia Fagundes and Diego Limberti at Droga5 São Palo (what is in the water at Droga5?). They had us get out of our seat and play with a collaging exercise. Scissors and glue were flying, as were the creative eyes. A room full of 20 art directors hummed and hawed, but we managed to deliver playful and clever images in our short time.

If you didn’t know, Cannes 2025 is the year of Brazil as they won Creative Country of the Year. There are several Brazilians in the Creative Academy, and we had 3 Brazilian speakers today. This part of the world is largely unknown to me, and getting immersed not just in the culture, but in the Brazilian way of creative thinking has been eye opening!

I ended my night at the infamous Gutter Bar being literally embraced by the Brazilian community. What can I say that hasn’t already been said about the beautiful people of Brazil? Bring on Day 3, and Viva Brazil!