For a few years, Williams’ rank on the listing of elite athlete endorsements lagged behind her outstanding career accomplishments.
Williams, who turns 41 subsequent month, had overwhelmed Spain’s Nuria Parrizas Diaz on Monday for her first singles victory for the reason that 2021 French Open, 14 months in the past. Picture: WTA/Twitter.
NEW YORK – Since returning to tennis as a mom in 2018, Serena Williams has not dominated the courts with the identical dominance she as soon as displayed, however has overtaken her pre-pregnancy mark in a single key class: off-court endorsements.
For a few years, Williams’ rank on the listing of elite athlete endorsements lagged behind her outstanding career accomplishments.
But over the previous few years, as she has grow to be extra recognized with motherhood and non-tennis pursuits reminiscent of enterprise capital, Williams has ultimately grow to be a celebrity endorser not restricted to athletic manufacturers.
“She has no issues with polarizing anyone, which makes her a good marketing celebrity,” mentioned Henry Schafer, govt vice chairman of Q Scores, whose scores are a well known benchmark for measuring A-lister shopper enchantment.
Williams’ tv spots have been various: for JPMorgan Chase, she learn the lyrics of an LL Cool J basic; for DirecTV, she battled monsters in Wonder Woman garb; and for Michelob, she starred in an expensive 2022 Super Bowl advert.
The 23-time Grand Slam champion earned $45 million in endorsements in 2022, about 4 instances her stage in 2014, when she was the world’s primary participant, in response to Forbes’ annual listing of top-paid athletes.
Advocates for girls in sports activities have fun Williams for breaking by way of the glass ceiling in advertising as a lady of colour, however observe that solely two of the highest 50 Forbes athletes are feminine.
“Much like anything with women’s sports and marketing, we have a long way to go,” mentioned Danette Leighton, chief govt officer of the Women’s Sports Foundation.
“We’re thankful Serena’s been able to do what she’s done and received the accolades and notoriety, but there’s still a lot of work to be done.”
Leighton cited one research that mentioned girls signify 40% of all athletes, however girls’s sports activities obtain solely 4 p.c of the media protection.
HITTING OBSTACLES
From the beginning, Williams and her elder sister Venus — a seven-time Grand Slam champion — commanded important clothes endorsements even earlier than they received main championships.
In Serena’s case, her first huge attire contract was with Puma, which outfitted her by way of her preliminary Grand Slam triumphs, together with her first “Serena Slam,” a 12-month stretch over 2002 and 2003 during which she held all 4 main titles.
Williams then signed a serious contract with Nike in 2003, when the Forbes listing of the 50 best-paid athletes didn’t embody any girls in any respect.
She has usually pushed the envelope in tennis vogue, donning edgy outfits reminiscent of a black Puma catsuit on the 2002 US Open, and a one-legged Nike model in Australia in 2021 to honor monitor legend Florence Griffith-Joyner.
But she additionally has suffered very public meltdowns which may have dampened advertising enthusiasm for her, the worst of which got here on the 2009 US Open when she threatened a line choose in a semifinal defeat to Kim Clijsters.
By the second time she achieved the “Serena Slam” over the 2014 and 2015 seasons, Williams’ endorsement profile drew consideration for its relative modesty.
“Williams is arguably the greatest female athlete of all-time, but sponsors have often eschewed” her, Forbes mentioned in 2015, noting that she trailed Maria Sharapova in endorsements for the eleventh straight yr, regardless of dominating the Russian tennis star and proudly owning many extra titles.
“Williams’ skin colour, muscular body type and one memorable outburst at the US Open of 2009 have all been blamed by pundits for the endorsement gap between Williams and Sharapova,” the journal mentioned.
“The reality is that there is no one magic answer for the disparity.”
ICONIC FIGURE
Marketing consultants say Williams’ current leap into the endorsement stratosphere displays her higher relatability since turning into a mom and being compelled to juggle work and household life.
With Margaret Court’s file of 24 Slam titles in her sights, Williams has reached 4 main finals as a mom, however misplaced all of them — setbacks which have maybe endeared her to the general public.
The twilight of Williams’s career has dovetailed with societal pushes for higher racial and gender equality, and lots of manufacturers at the moment are extra wanting to be related to a profitable Black lady.
Q Scores charges Williams a 78 by way of recognition, properly above different feminine athletes. Her “positive” Q ranking of 17 is now higher than her “negative” ranking of 14, mentioned Schafer.
That means Williams has a extra favorable ratio than athletes like NBA celebrity LeBron James and NFL legend Tom Brady.
Leslie Allen, a former high US tennis participant who’s African American, mentioned the enterprise world has lengthy underestimated the flexibility of individuals like Williams to enchantment to shoppers of all races, calling her advertising success “overdue.”
Allen rejoices that the opposite lady on the Forbes listing of high athletes is four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka, who’s of Haitian and Japanese descent.
“I love the fact that the top two women on that list are women of color, which means we have come a long way in terms of being able to be universally accepted as viable brand ambassadors,” Allen mentioned.
“That was impossible 20 years ago.”