TOUCHDOWN: SURE SERENA BOASTS, BUT AT LEAST SHE'S CONSISTENT

Veritas Team Huddle Compiled By Ed Lee
Her image and reputation is based on being confident, brash and different from the establishment. She is not your typical “country club, white skirt and pig tails” tennis player. But is she the best? This week, Serena Williams declared herself to be the world’s number one female tennis player. Her current world ranking? A relatively lowly second. It’s always risky to declare yourself as the leader in anything, especially something as carefully measured as professional sports. In doing this, Serena has put a bull’s-eye on her back. Clearly she is confident that she can regain that number one spot, but what if she can’t? The women’s tour is extremely competitive and Serena has been plagued with injuries the last few years. She may be the only woman to have every held all four Grand Slam titles simultaneously. She may have won 20 Grand Slams in her career. She may have won more prize money than any other female athlete but is she number one NOW? The rankings have been constructed to reward exceptional form over two years, so if she isn’t ranked as number one, it’s because she ISN’T number one. Now, from a pure communications standpoint, it’s the view of the Veritas team that boasting large is Serena’s standard M.O., and she has been saying this her whole career. Her personal brand and her confidence is based on the firm belief that she is the best in the world. She is driven and she is capable. While your specific messaging needs to be flexible throughout a campaign, the brand values you are using the messages to communicate should never change. Serena has stayed true to her personal brand throughout her career and for this demonstration, we give her a Touchdown.