How Drake Took The Industry Crown
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Some Torontonians and music lovers around the world may not care very much Aubrey Graham and his music. However regardless of how you feel about Drake you will hear about him and hear his songs wherever you go in North America and possibly anywhere in the world right now for some years to come.
Drake's marketing team does a great job of catching on trends or even better setting new trends when it come to marketing his albums. Even thought his album cover artwork is often the butt of internet's trolling he has been able to get his message out. All the meme's and parody covers of the albums do everything but hurt his image.
Create The Buzz
If there is anyone who great at creating a buzz about their projects it would be Drake, regardless of what he is working on. Whether it be an album or a concert Drake knows how tease and appease his audience and he has been doing that ever since he started by taking music industry by storm. In 2016, Drake has been creating a buzz for views for long time before he dropped VIEWS last month for the rest of the world to listen to.
"The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about."
- OSCAR WILDE.
As long as people are talking about Drake, the way he is making moves makes him the 'guy' in the music industry, almost anything he touches turns to gold. Here are some of the power plays the young music star has made to date.
1. APPLE MUSIC - his partnership with Apple music Drake has taken his music industry domination to a global scale with OVOSOUND Radio. Drake features exclusive music from his OVO artists and affiliates .
2. BACK TO BACK - The timing of the Drake and Meek Mill beef was impeccable. The Blue Jays were on fire in MLB and they had recently played Philly. The beef was dubbed Toronto vs. Philidelphia with respects to which cities the rappers are from. Meek Mill's career was jeopardized when Toronto stood up for Drake, including the '6 God' Norm Kelly. It was change of pace for Toronto, since in urban music scence Toronto has been been dubbed "screwface capital". The city is well known for not supporting or endorsing many locals rappers. As as result "Back to Back" became the summer street anthem and song of the city. You can listen to "Back to Back HERE
3. GLOBAL BRAND AMBASSADOR - In 2014 Drake was following officially appointed as the Toronto Raptors global ambassador. The Toronto Raptors had just undergone a massive rebranding process with a new logo, new jersey and the well known #WETHENORTH campaign. Drake was given the opportunity to fully the integrate the OVO brand within the Raptors franchise by having designing one of the uniforms the Toronto Raptors would wear in the 2015-2016 season. Even thought some people were skeptical of the partnership at first. It has proved to be a fruitful partnership for parties. It is now synonymous for fans and people around the world to associate Drake with the Toronto Raptors.
4. OVOSOUND - The growth of OVOSOUND in the last year alone has astounding. Drake's and his partners have signed a slew of new artists namely DVSN and Roy Woods. You ca also include the already established PartyNextDoor and Majid Jordan. All are 3 acts are Canadians from the GTA who are signed to OVOSOUND. DVSN comprises of producer Nineteen85 (Hold On We're Going Home & Too Much) and Daniel Daley. Their sound represents a return to smooth R&B, check out the album "Sept. 5th". Roy Woods is a very young artist with a strong voice and great production behind him, check out his EP "Exis". For more on OVOSOUND click HERE
5. JORDAN - Drake showed up at 2014 OVOFest decked out in a Jordan jumpsuit. He had recently given teasers about the partnership with Jordan and OVO to release a special edition of Jordan/OVO shoes. As per usual Drake made a smart decision and he continues to do so when it comes to choosing partners that will promote himself and his OVO team.
A STAR IS BORN
As it stands currently 2016 seems to be the year for Drake to fully embrace his star power and influence on his fans and it started with the release of his single "Summer Sixteen" and then prior and during the NBA all star weekend "6" and "VIEWS" billboards started popping up all over Toronto. It was a fantastic time put the billboards up since the whole world would have it's eyes on Toronto for the NBA All Star Game. It was also an opportunity for Drake to showcase his start power.
DROP IT LIKE IT'S HOT
As I mentioned before about Drake being on the mark about when released or leaked songs to his fans. It was always purposely and the impact it had on social media and the music industry would keep people talking for weeks on end. Drake makes efforts to tease his fans with a few tracks before he launches a project. It's 2016 and Drake has released a number street anthems for the summer.
"Summer Sixteen" was enough to get fans more than excited about VIEWS. Drake took shots at some Toronto artists and made it clear that Toronto was his. Next up in the weeks leading up to final release of VIEWS Drake releases two official songs "One Dance" which samples a funky house classic from the 2009 hit by Crazy Cousins and Kyla "Do You Mind" and "Pop Style" that featured some serious star power from Jay-Z and Kanye West. Both songs were well received and and created a bigger anticipation for the album VIEWS.
ENGAGE YOUR FANS
With fan engagement being one of the marquee aspects of marketing and keeping people engaged. Drake and have hit the mark with album cover activations every year. Whoever thought of this was genius! For example for Drake's last project VIEWS Drake released the cover to VIEWS a few days before the album dropped. There was a lot speculation as to whether it was really drake sitting on top of the CN tower and this great for publicity. People made fun of the cover and even made their own versions of cover. The buzz created an opportunity for Drake he released and a digital activation which allowed people to create their own album cover and add the "sitting drizzy" wherever they wanted.
CHECK OUT SITE HERE: http://www.drakesviews.com/#!/
The activation is another example of Drake's team taking advantage of people negativity and using it to fuel more hype and buzz around VIEWS. Oddly enough if anyone has been paying attention to Drake he has managed to use the same method over and over to promote both of his previous albums in the same manner to use his influence to get the internet talking.
DOMINATE THE GAME
As it stands right now, Drake has quickly become an icon and leader in the music industry with his beefs with Common, Meek Mill, his relationship with Rihanna, his appointment as the Global Ambassador for the Toronto Raptors. His partnerships with Apple Music and JORDAN have monumental for the OVO brand. As as an ambassador for some of the world's biggest brands in the world he cannot lose.
Even though Drake is making way for the growth of OVO as a brand. He is working global domination starting with the UK. He has a budding relationship with Skepta. This musical partnership has benefits for both parties involved. It has opened a door for Skepta in the North America market for his unique grime sound and his Boy Better Know record label. Rumour has that Drake has actually signed to Skepta's record label so we can look for some type of collaboration between to the musicians in the near future.
I am not sure, if I have convinced anyone of this yet, but I think it's fair to say that Drake has definitely taken the crown and is currently the KING of hip hop.
