Pop star Rihanna and hip-hop’s 2015 phenom Drake have reunited for a song titled “Work†for her highly anticipated “Anti” album, with its release hitting social media and creating international buzz. The album was officially released in late January, then was pulled and is still available on iTunes and other online music stores. One million copies were previously given away to fans as part of her most recent $25 million Samsung deal, and despite reportedly low initial sales in the U.S., it was a hit on iTunes and went platinum within just days of its official release.
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Though the Bajan star hadn’t released a new album since 2012—and major news outlets are questioning true sales numbers for “Anti”— Rihanna is no stranger to making boss moves both in business and music, listed undeniably by Forbes as one of the world’s highest-paid celebrities.
Check out a snapshot of her bankable brand on the next pages.
SAMSUNG SENSATION
The Korean tech giant reached an unprecedented $25 million deal to sponsor Rihanna’s “Anti” album and tour in October 2015 after seven months of negotiations, making the deal the biggest music-marketing tie-up in recent history. Launch dates were pushed back as the star finalized the album, but hints of its elements were teased via her social media accounts, ANTIdiaRy.com, a Samsung-powered, mobile site.  More details on the release were seen during the November 2015 American Music Awards ads featuring the singer, On Feb. 26, she kicks off the North American leg of her “ANTI World Tour†in San Diego with Travis Scott.
PROSPEROUS PERFUMES
Rihanna has launched seven fragrances, with the most recent one, RiRi by Rihanna, making a major impact on the market. A personal appearance at a Brooklyn, N.Y. to promote the fragrance, launched at an in-store event in August 2015, reportedly helped generate more than $46,000 in sales that day alone. She’s been on top-selling celebrity fragrance lists for more than five years, coming in No. 4 on a recent list compiled by Euromonitor, a leading research and market analysis company, with $31 million in retail sales
PUMA PROFITABILITY
Appointed as creative director of the footwear brand late in the fall of last year, Rihanna struck footwear gold, netting a reported seven-figure salary. Her $120 Creeper shoe sold out within hours of its September 2015 release, and were re-issued only to sell out again. Another sneaker, the Puma Eskiva Mid, retailed at $110 at its October 2015 launch, have been worn by popular celebrities, including Kylie Jenner, and have been top sellers.
After Rihanna was officially placed in a women’s creative director post, Puma reported that its overall sales grew to €772.7 million (more than $850 million U.S. currency) during the second quarter of the 2015, an increase of 7.6%, and though some of that is attributed to their investment in the world’s fastest man alive, Usain Bolt, Rihanna’s popularity and viral sales-driving factor is sure to have contributed to those numbers.
“Rihanna has a fantastically consistent track-record,†said Adam Petrick, Puma’s global brand and marketing director, in a New York Times interview. “She has been at the top of her game a long time. And I can say from personal experience she has a desire to improve and that is what we are about.â€
RIH RIH RIVER ISLAND
Rihanna unveiled her debut collection with retailer River Island in March 2013, using supermodels Jourdan Dunn, Charlotte Free, Tao Okamoto, Ataui Deng and Bambi Northwood Blyth to showcase the fashions, which featured t-shirts, navy boiler suits, striped mini skirts and varsity jackets.
Sales reportedly saw a boost for the British brand, with growth to £839 million (more than $1.3 billion) in 2013, which saw the retailer collaborating with Rihanna for the Rihanna for River Island collection. Ben Lewis, CEO of River Island, told the Telegraph in a 2014 interview that there is “a lot of [overseas] support†for British designers, and collaborating with Rihanna helped to boost sales for River Island in 2013. “It is a particular type of fashion,†Lewis said. “It is edgy, it is flirtatious, it is fun, it is eclectic, and it is not formulaic. It plays on the creativity that Britain has, we are not scared of breaking boundaries.”
MAC-XIMUM DOMINATION
In February 2013, she inked a deal with MAC cosmetics, launching RiRi Woo in May of the same year, a $17 lipstick hue that sold out in just three hours.Â
It was the first time the brand has worked with a famous person for more than just a one-off project. “We always say that MAC likes to go on a date but doesn’t really want to go into a relationship,†John Demsey, group president of the Estée Lauder Cos. Inc., MAC’s parent company, told WWD in an interview. “This relationship with Rihanna is a long-term one that involves the development of four distinct color initiatives.â€
At the time, industry insiders told WWD that they estimated that the complete Rihanna-infused lineup could do $15 million at retail globally. Based on insights reported that established recording stars can garner $2 million to $10 million from a beauty endorsement contract, Rihanna was sure to be ‘rolling in the dough’ on this one, boosting her bankability as well as her popularity as a trendsetting influencer.