As Apple prepares its big move into original content, a star of "Planet of the Apps," one of its first generation of shows, has spoken out about how the company handled the marketing of that series.
"I was on an Apple show 'Planet of the Apps' -- Gwyneth, Will, Jessica Alba, me and Apple didn't use me or [Vayner Media, Vaynerchuk's digital marketing company] to do the marketing, and did everything wrong." said Gary Vaynerchuk on his podcast in an interview with Food Network hosts. "Look, I grew up in the wine business, so Food Network is probably my Apple. But I don't trust anybody in marketing, today."
Vaynerchuk, an entrepreneur known for his work in the wine industry as well as digital marketing, talked about the Apple experience on an episode of his YouTube show "Ask Gary Vee." Vaynerchuk was one of the judges on "Planet of the Apps," along with actresses Jessica Alba and Gwyneth Paltrow and musician Will.i.am.
Vaynerchuk went on to note that while he takes complete control over marketing on his own projects, he often refrained from comment while dealing with the Apple during the production of the show.
"You'd be blown away by the way I handled myself in the Apple marketing meeting. My cheeks were bleeding profusely out of every meeting because I was biting them, my tongue fell completely out of my mouth," added Vaynerchuk. "You're also there with Jimmy Iovine, and he's like I got it, I got it,' and I knew he wasn't in the trenches, I know Jimmy's no dope, clearly, but I was like, F-- this.'"
Apple's ongoing push to create its own original TV series is sometimes referred to as the company's first push into original content. But that's not quite true- before the announcement about the upcoming series starring the likes of Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon and Jason Momoa, Apple actually debuted its original content last year with "Planet of the Apps," a "Shark Tank"-like reality series that was distributed through Apple Music and iTunes.
The series aired ten episodes in the summer of 2017, and while there's been no official word about a cancellation, the series is not considered much of a success.
Vaynerchuk did not go into detail about what exactly the dispute with Apple entailed. It is clear, though, that the show failed to make much of a dent, and that Apple failed to take advantage of the star power that came with three entertainment industry celebrities who have credibility in the business world, as well as a marketing guru in Vaynerchuk.
Still, there's not much reason to think this bodes ill for Apple's future content plans. The company has clearly bought into becoming a content player going forward in a way that it hadn't in 2017, and will clearly be bringing its full marketing power to bear on its upcoming shows in a way it didn't for "Planet of the Apps."