Drake is undoubtedly the Toronto's most famous resident. The 29-year-old rapper reps his city every opportunity he has, including on his latest album, Views From The 6, which has been the No. 1 album in the country for seven weeks in a row. On the cover of the album, Drizzy is photoshopped sitting on top of the CN Tower, while the album's title is a nod to Toronto's nickname. Some would say that one cannot put a price on the value of Drake's relentless promotion of his hometown. But a research team recently crunched the numbers and figured out the actual value of Drake's promotional value to his city; and the numbers are mind boggling.
An article in the Toronto Star enlisted the help of the research team at ZenithOptimedia, a "media buying agency" based in Toronto, in an effort to figure out how much the rapper is worth to the city as a promotional asset. And in that article, they deduced that Drizzy is worth a whopping $3 billion to his city. The agency took many different factors into consideration, including his "cumulative YouTube views," his social media followers (32.5 million Twitter followers and 23 million Instagram followers) and his appearances on conventional media.
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According to ZenithOptimedia, when taking into account the amount of times Drake mentions Toronto, they estimate that it would cost about $300 million for an advertising agency to equate the level of global reach that Drake has achieved as it pertains to promoting his city.
According to Kristine Lyrette, ZenithOptimedia's president, Drake's "cool factor" is a major reason why his promotion of the 6 is so valuable. "Drake's cool factor is not for sale and the minute it is, that value will drop," said Lyrette. She went on to say, "Genuine and sincere intention is half the battle in gaining trust with the public."
What makes Drake's promotion of Toronto so successful is that Toronto is still a young city, which didn't have a real identity in the eyes of the global community prior to Drake coming onto the scene. With Drake's constant promotion of his city though, he is helping to mold the way everyone views Toronto, as a cool, cosmopolitan city.
"What he has been doing is pretty awesome… Making Toronto go viral is really just impossible to replicate," said Lyrette.
With his promotion being worth an estimated $3 billion, it's hard to imagine another celebrity being more valuable to his hometown that Drake.
