Crain Communications vs Marketing Dive

Agency Reviews Move Beyond CMO's Office

An opinion piece by Robyn Freye published on August 19, 2026, observes that agency-of-record (AOR) reviews are increasingly led by non-marketing stakeholders. The author notes that in recent pitches the person running the room was not the chief marketing officer, reflecting an expanding C-suite decision tree. The article frames this as a structural shift in who controls agency selection and review processes, with implications for how agencies interact with broader corporate stakeholders during pitches.

• Robyn Freye authored an opinion article titled 'The AOR review has left the CMO’s office'.
• The article was published on Ad Age on 2026-08-19.
• The author reports that in her last four pitches the person running the room was not the chief marketing officer.

ViralGains Wins Fierce AI Innovation Award for Programmatic Marketing

New press releases added to Marketing Dive's press release page, including ViralGains, FouAnalytics, MERGE, and more.

Gap launches fall denim campaign starring Inde Navarrette

Gap launched a fall campaign called “Denim on your own” that pairs actor Inde Navarrette with singer-songwriter Malcolm Todd. The spot, directed by Tanu Muiño with creative direction by Gap’s Calvin Leung, features Todd’s cover of Robyn’s “Dancing on My Own” and was rolled out across Gap’s digital and social channels, email, stores and out-of-home placements (including billboards in Times Square and on Sunset Boulevard). Paid media elements will run on major social/video platforms and via creator partnerships. The campaign highlights Gap’s continued focus on music-and-movement-driven marketing and follows recent celebrity collaborations that have helped revive Gen Z relevance and improved comparable sales.

• Gap launched a fall campaign titled “Denim on your own” starring Inde Navarrette and Malcolm Todd.
• Malcolm Todd recorded a cover of Robyn’s “Dancing on My Own” specifically for the campaign.
• The campaign rolled out across Gap’s digital and social channels, email, in-store, out-of-home (including Times Square and Sunset Boulevard billboards) and includes paid media and creator partnerships.