Carving a Creative Space for Verizon in a World Full of Curveballs

This week, Ogilvy hired Gerard Caputo to be group executive creative director for North America, and creative lead on the Verizon business.

Previously group creative director at Wieden+Kennedy, Gerard will now be driving the creative vision for both the Verizon Consumer Group and Verizon Business accounts, reporting to Ogilvy North America’s chief creative officer, Rafael Rizuto.​

“I’ve noticed that when most people hear about a brand like Verizon, they have a visceral reaction. They’re either up for it or not,” says Gerard. “I like people who are up for things. I want to be a person who is up for things, and feel very fortunate to have the opportunity to be up for this.” 

Reflecting on his five-year stint at Wieden+Kennedy, he says that the experience allowed him to ‘double down’ on his priorities. “If you’re fortunate enough to be in a leadership role, you’ll find that sometimes other people will try to make you do it on their terms because it suits their agenda. At WK, I simply focused on the work and the people. [Global CCO] Karl Lieberman sets a great example of how to stay committed to that and bring everyone along for the journey. Focus on those things and the rest will come.”

Gerard assumes creative lead following a successful period between Verizon and Ogilvy. In the past year or so, the agency-brand partnership has produced award-winning and attention-grabbing work like ‘Can’t B Broken’ with Beyoncé for Super Bowl LVIII, the ‘Verizon Barbie StreamHouse’, and Verizon FanFest experience for Super Bowl LIX – not to mention supporting the brand through its 2024 brand refresh.

Having watched this progress intently from the outside, Gerard says, “I’ve definitely noticed how the work and the brand have been evolving and carving a new space for itself recently, and it’s exciting to help define that moving forward with our clients. They are becoming sharper on what they want to be yet not too rigid about how we go about getting there. So, there’s some creative flexibility and room to adapt in a world that’s constantly throwing us curveballs.”

He particularly appreciated the Super Bowl campaign starring Beyoncé, noting its ability to showcase ‘the power of the Verizon network’ beyond simply being another Big Game ad – all while dropping two new songs. “I love when something leverages the Super Bowl as a creative platform instead of just appearing as a typical spot,” he says. “That was one of my overall favourites from that year. The recent work featuring Pete Davidson is really nice too.” 

Now, Gerard is heading up the team behind this work, looking toward more culture-impacting creative for Verizon in 2025 and beyond. “I’ve found that the best work is an outcome of trying to be the best partner to our team members and clients,” he adds. “So, I’m starting there, and we’ll see what happens.”