Taking stock of this week's marketing winners, losers and newsmakers.

Winners

Saysh: That is the name of the sneaker business started by Allyson Felix after she ran away from Nike about two years ago alleging that she was penalized financially for becoming pregnant. Flash forward to this week, when Felix won an Olympic medal while wearing her very own pair of Saysh shoes, giving her startup brand priceless exposure. She celebrated the win with an Instagram video explaining Saysh's principles: equality and empowerment of women and mothers. It had drawn more than 250,000 likes by Saturday morning.

Rihanna: The Barbados-born musician-turned-entrepreneur is the world’s newest billionaire, according to Forbes, thanks in part to her business ventures including lingerie line Savage x Fenty and Fenty Beauty, which has a whopping 10.8 million Instagram followers.

Translation: The Brooklyn shop is Ad Age’s Small Agency of the Year. “Our size and independence played to our strengths last year,” founder and CEO Steve Stoute told us. “We have the freedom to make decisions that aren’t based on quarterly results. When you don’t, it doesn’t bode well when dealing with a crisis.” Find out more about how the agency did it here.

See all the winners of Ad Age's 2021 Small Agency Awards here.

Losers

NBC: Ratings for the COVID-plagued Tokyo Olympics are down ​​45% from the Rio games in 2016, CNN reports. Will Johnson, CEO of The Harris Poll, offers some suggestions here on how to save Olympics viewership.

FC Barcelona: The Spanish soccer club is losing one of the world’s biggest sports stars with the exit of Lionel Messi, whose endorsement power makes him the globe’s second-highest-paid athlete, according to Forbes.

Clorox: The maker of disinfecting wipes and bleach is discovering how fickle consumers can be in the COVID era. After riding a hot streak as the pandemic set in last year, Clorox Co. this week posted fourth-quarter sales below expectations and forecast a 2% to 6% decline this year due to “uncertain” consumer demand, Bloomberg reports.

Activision: While contending with consumer boycotts over a sexual harassment lawsuit, the gaming giant must now deal with sponsor revolt. Coca-Cola, State Farm and T-Mobile are all reconsidering ties to the company’s professional esports property, Overwatch League.

Number of the week

46%: The share of U.S. Netflix subscribers who say they would be willing to watch ads on the streaming service if it meant paying $5 less, according to a new eMarketer poll.

Tweet of the week

Quote of the week

“Brands that start suggesting that everything is normal may look like they aren’t in touch with reality.”— Kimberly Whitler, associate chair in business administration at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business, on the challenges marketers face amid the COVID surge. 

Friday flashback

On the move

Crazy Aarons, a toy brand known for its Thinking Putty, appointed Ahren Hoffman marketing team lead. Hoffman formerly worked as a project manager of development and technology at WT Group, an engineering consultancy.