Defending creativity
Cavallo’s formative years in advertising came during 18 months at Mullen. A stint at Arnold followed, where the agency’s 1995 “Drivers Wanted” campaign for Volkswagen hooked her on an industry where “every day is different,” she said.
“It was a different kind of car advertising. One that prioritized the people in that story just as much as it did the car,” Cavallo said. That work on VW led to her winning the 4A’s Jay Chiat Award for Strategic Excellence.
During her career, Cavallo has never shied away from defending the value of an agency’s work.
In 2022, she challenged Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong after he tweeted that no agency could have conceived of its Super Bowl ad.
As Cavallo pointed out, three of them—R/GA, Droga5 and The Martin Agency—all pitched similar ideas.
Cavallo also advocated for subscription payment methods after former client Discover was still running TV ads The Martin Agency created five years after the relationship ended.
Many agency CEOs start their careers as account execs—that path through the agency often affords staffers the best opportunity to learn how to balance client needs with the agency’s business. With her background in strategy—her first advertising internship as an account exec didn’t last the summer, she finished the internship as a strategic planner—and consistently championing creativity, Cavallo bucks industry norms.
“It’s one thing for the business world to question [the value of creativity]. It’s another thing for us to question ourselves, our own value that we provide,” Cavallo explained, adding Robinson and Cartagena know how hard, special, rare and important it is to make something that “breaks through … and makes an impression. And I hope that the industry notices that.”
