New Study Finds Rihanna Is the Most Marketable Celebrity (Better Luck Next Year, Yonce)

Rihanna beats Beyoncé for the top spot.

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Whether she's posing for campaigns or joining their creative teams, brands like Dior and Stance have been eager to partner with Rihanna. The collaborations make perfect sense considering her status as a style icon, but, new data from the NPD Group's BrandLink database found that the decision to bring Badgalriri on board also makes financial sense, too, since she's ranked as the most marketable celebrity out there today. 

NPD gave Rihanna an "endorsement score" of 367—​determined from the responses of 92,000 consumer surveys—​beating out more than 1,000 "big-name" celebrities (aka athletes, actors, and other artists). Her score was almost four times the average score of others in the survey, which is set at 100. While this research doesn't cover how these stars affect the sales of brands they're associated with, it does add a little context for companies looking for a solid spokesperson to represent them; according to NPD, a strong endorsement means fans are at least 50% more likely to use a product or brand the celeb is associated with. 

Rihanna taking that #1 spot isn't surprising considering the effect we already know her co-sign has. Last year, the release of her suede creeper for Puma, which flew off the shelves, brought a significant increase to its women's sales

Several other musicians rounded out the list, with Beyoncé taking the second spot and Usher and Ne-Yo tying for third. The Weeknd, who recently partnered with Alexander Wang, came in at the sixth spot, just under Wiz Khalifa, while Khloe Kardashian managed to nab the last spot, subsequently beating out the other members of her family (sorry, Kris).

Take a look at the full top ten at NPD

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