The Top 5 Platforms & Personas of Summer 2025

Hey, it’s Arlesha! I hope you’ve been enjoying your summer (so far…we have until the 22nd before it’s actually Fall and pumpkin spice latte season, right?)

You may have noticed I’ve taken a short hiatus from your inbox; I've been enjoying the summer and heads down on client work, prepping for a few platform initiatives and exciting developments. I look forward to sharing more. But you know what else has been exciting this summer?

This summer has been full of standout moments where public figures—athletes and entertainers alike—showcased the ethos of this Platform & Personas series. They reminded us that a “persona” is not just for the sake of image, but a foundation for building for long-term platform impact. Some leveraged new markets, others leaned deeper into advocacy, and others redefined what ownership and longevity look like in modern culture.

So, I’ve curated a list of the Top Five Personas & Platforms of Summer 2025.

When selecting my Top Five, I looked at more than just headlines. The names on this list rose to the top because of their current appeal with their respective consumer base, virality on social media, cultural relevancy, and most importantly, their ability to translate the influence of their persona into lasting platform initiatives. Each name on the list demonstrates platform expansion, market impact, and narrative momentum that point to long-term influence, not just a seasonal spotlight.

Here are my Top Five Personas & Platforms of Summer ‘25 who are setting the bar for how to evolve and expand influence:

1. Venus Williams: Longevity, Health Advocacy, and Lifestyle Evolution

At 45, Venus Williams turned heads at the U.S. Open not only for competing at the highest level, but for reminding the world of her remarkable staying power. Yet her presence this summer goes far beyond tennis. Venus has emerged as a strong voice for fibroid awareness, sparking conversations around women’s health that are deeply personal and widely resonant. At the same time, she continues to make her mark in fashion through her EleVen line and in entrepreneurship with her plant-based protein shake brand, Happy Viking, which recently secured a new round of celebrity-backed funding. Venus embodies what it means to evolve a persona into a multi-pillar platform: one rooted in excellence, advocacy, and reinvention.

Competing at the U.S. Open at 45, she continues to inspire, while expanding into new missions and ventures:

• Health Advocacy: Raising awareness around fibroids and women’s health

• Fashion & Culture: From the Met Gala to magazine covers, she’s maintaining a presence in global fashion & lifestyle spaces

• Entrepreneurship: Her Happy Viking plant-based protein shake brand raised new celeb-backed funding

• Longevity & Reinvention: With the 2025 US Open run, she reinforces her persona as timeless, resilient, and evolving

2. Allyson Felix: Advocacy and Enterprise as a Platform

As the most decorated American track and field Olympian, Allyson Felix could have rested on persona-driven fame. Instead, she’s built her purpose into a platform.

Through Always Alpha, her women’s sports management company, and Saysh, her women’s footwear brand, Allyson has cemented herself as both a leader and a builder. Add in her unapologetic stance on maternity rights and athlete advocacy, and her platform is as much about structural change as it is about business.

Her playbook show how legacy comes from pairing credibility with advocacy and product innovation.

Felix has firmly established herself as a blueprint for athletes building platforms beyond sport, with initiatives tied to both entrepreneurship and advocacy:

• Entrepreneurship: Founder of women’s running shoe brand Saysh

• Women’s Sports Leadership: Launched sports management company Always Alpha

• Motherhood & Maternity: Strong advocacy for maternal rights and athlete mothers

• Women’s Equity & Representation: Positions herself as a champion for systemic change in sports

2. Shaduer Sanders: Ownership and Persona in Transition

Shaduer Sanders, star quarterback and son of Deion “Coach Prime” Sanders, is a casestudy in how today’s athletes can leverage persona early to build for platform later.

By incorporating his “Prime Equity” clause as part of his NFL contract ( a one-of-a-kind clause that grants Shadeur a direct percentage of revenue from merchandise, sponsorships, and media linked to his name and likeness) Shaduer has shifted the conversation. For Shadeur, this isn’t just about performance, sponsorships or endorsements…it’s about ownership. He’s positioning himself as more than a player endorsing a product; he’s a stakeholder shaping its future.

At just the start of his NFL career, Shaduer is demonstrating that taking control of your persona — the story, the perception, the influence — is the prerequisite to building platform-level opportunities that can compound over time:

• Equity Mindset: Prime equity deal tied to NFL contract marks his innovation and proactivity towards brand-ownership and equity

• Personal Branding: Confidently building a public-facing persona beyond football (He is his father’s son afterall!)

• Multigenerational Appeal: Resonates with both younger audiences and millennial audiences alike for his style, swagger and undeniable confidence.

• Athlete Autonomy: Embodying the current shift toward athletes as owners, not just endorsers

4. Tracee Ellis Ross: Solo Travel and Lifestyle Empowerment as a Platform

Actress Tracee Ellis Ross has long been celebrated for her style, humor, and individuality. But with “Solo Travel with Tracee Ellis Ross” on Roku — the most-watched unscripted show in the platform’s history — and other ventures, she’s turning a beloved persona into a scalable lifestyle platform.

Combined with Pattern Beauty, her haircare brand, Tracee is crafting a multi-pronged ecosystem rooted in self-care, joy, and empowerment, particularly for Black women. The brilliance lies in how naturally her persona flows into products, content, and experiences that can expand well beyond the screen.

This summer, actress Tracee Ellis Ross has transformed her love for solo travel into a cultural conversation. The success of her Roku series positions her to extend her passion for solo traveling into broader lifestyle and wellness spaces.

• Solo Travel & Lifestyle: Building a content-powered movement centered on independence and joy

• Beauty & Empowerment: As the founder of Pattern Beauty, Tracee serves as Ulta Beauty’s Diversity & Inclusion Officer.

• Wellness & Self-Care: This platform pillar is a Natural tie-in with haircare (Pattern), and mental health

5. Ciara: Reinvention and Creative Control Powers Platform

R&B songstress and performer Ciara is in her reinvention era. Ciara is expanding her persona, still largely rooted in artistry, performance, and image, but doing so in ways that set the stage for a platform spanning music, fashion, and lifestyle.

Upon her move to the high-impact market New York, where husband Russell Wilson joins the NY Giants, she’s re-energizing her career and visibility in refreshing ways:

• Music & Performance Expansion: Release CiCi, her first album in six years, under her own label Beauty Marks Entertainment.

• Style Trendsetting: Expanded fashion ventures, including the bebe x Ciara collection, while remaining a style trendsetter.

• Confidence & Empowerment: Partnered with Dove on campaigns around body confidence, aligning her image with empowerment.

• Media Presence: Recurring role as guest host on Today with Jenna and Friends, solidifying her on-screen presence and signaling her expansion into lifestyle media opportunities.

• Family and Relationships: Balances her career with motherhood while publicly integrating family into her story. She and Russell Wilson are often spotlighted as one of the industry’s “success couples” who has the potential to lean into marriage/romance narratives within her broader ecosystem platform.

In entertainment and sports, leveraging persona is currency. But Persona alone has limits. What separates those who stay relevant from those who build legacy is the ability to evolve from persona — the magnet that draws attention — into Platform — the foundation that creates value and sustains impact. And each name on this list is drawing, keeping and expanding that attention to build for bigger…to build for more impact. 

If you liked this issue, you’ll enjoy the Champion Takes newsletter series “Platforms and Personas”. This series covers Talent who build and design Platforms—creating sustainable value for themselves and the brands and properties who partner with them. 

Catch up with the series here.