Dive Brief:

• Just in time for the holiday season, Jamie Gersch will leave her post as Charlotte Russe CMO to return to Old Navy late October as CMO of the Gap-owned apparel chain, Ad Age reports. 

• Gersch arrived at Charlotte Russe just last year after spending 14 years at Gap Inc.; that stint included serving as Old Navy marketing VP, where she oversaw communication strategy across all channels and led annual and seasonal marketing, according to Ad Age.

• The Old Navy CMO position has been open since Ivan Wicksteed exited in March after three years with the brand. Wicksteed was known for injecting a level of A-list humor into the brand’s marketing with spots featuring comedic actors, including Elizabeth Banks, Amy Poehler and Julia Louis-Dreyfus. 

Dive Insight:

Tapping an Old Navy veteran for the CMO spot is a logical move for Gap because Gersch already knows the marketing ropes of the brand. President Sonia Syngal said in a statement: "Jamie's combination of passion for our brand, experience driving results in the business, cross-channel experience, and creative smarts made her the ideal CMO for our brand." 

Gersch can follow in Wicksteed's steps by playing up the humor in new ad campaigns. Most recently, the brand tapped comedian Amy Schumer to appear in a back-to-school spot. Schumer is set to make an appearance in five more spots over the course of the holiday season, Ad Age reports. 

Gersch will have her work cut out for her. After being the saving grace quarter after quarter for parent Gap, the Old Navy brand's fortunes seemed to finally sink about a year ago when former brand president Stefan Larsson left to lead Ralph Lauren. 

The company’s July earnings report was its 15th negative monthly report in the past 16 months, the longest stretch of weak comparable sales for the brand since a 22-month stretch in 2008-2009, according to research firm Retail Metrics. But it also showed that the company's lower-priced brand is regained its footing as the unit that buoys its results: Q2 same-store sales were down 3% at the flagship Gap brand, down 9% at Banana Republic, but remained flat at Old Navy.

"I'm actually pretty confident that we will see Old Navy deliver a very solid back half this year," Gap CEO Art Peck said on a conference call with analysts in August. "The value sweet spot today, Old Navy is extraordinarily competitive for the price out the door and has incredible quality, which is a killer proposition for the consumer.” 

In addition to the star-cast, humor-based marketing, Old Navy has sped up its supply chain and applied rigorous data to determine which styles customers favor and which should go, one of Larsson’s contributions stemming from his days at fast-fashion retailer H&M.