'Planet of the Apps' Star Gary Vaynerchuk Blames Show's Failure on Apple's Poor Marketing

Entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk, who starred in Apple's first original TV show "Planet of the Apps" as a mentor and investor, recently shared some insight into why he thinks the show ultimately failed, blaming Apple's marketing efforts.

Vaynerchuk made the comments in a recent episode of AskGaryVee, where he spoke with The Grill Dads from Food Network (via Business Insider). In the video, Vaynerchuk says that Apple did "everything" wrong when marketing "Planet of the Apps," and that he sat through Apple marketing meetings metaphorically "bleeding profusely from his mouth" from biting his cheeks to keep quiet on Apple's decisions.

I was on an Apple show, right? Planet of the Apps? Gwyneth, Will, Jessica Alba, and me and Apple didn't use me or Vayner[Media] to do the marketing and did EVERYTHING wrong. Apple. [...]

I don't trust anybody in marketing today. And I feel like when you have the misfortune of also knowing production and marketing you're sitting there -- and I did the same thing -- for all my bravado, I'm a real tough guy when it's in my home, this is my home. When I do content, it's my home. But when I'm in somebody else's house, I was taught to show respect.

You'd be blown away by the way I handled myself in the Apple marketing meetings. My cheeks were bleeding profusely out of every meeting because I was biting them. My tongue completely fell out of my mouth. You're also there with Jimmy Iovine and Jimmy is like 'I got it, we got it,' and I knew he wasn't in the trenches, I know Jimmy's no dope, clearly, but I was like f**k this.

Vaynerchuk didn't go into specific detail on what he thought Apple did wrong, but he did say that he felt Jimmy Iovine was not involved enough in the marketing of the show. Apple limited "Planet of the Apps" to its Apple Music subscribers as a perk, which undoubtedly had an impact on its popularity, but given the response to the show, it's doubtful more expansive marketing would have improved the ultimate outcome.

"Planet of the Apps" launched in the summer of 2017 and received rather mixed reviews. Engadget, for example, called it Planet of the Naps and said it was lousy TV, The Guardian said it "won't be a fun watch for anyone except maybe venture capitalists," and Variety said it was a "bland, tepid, barely competent knock-off of 'Shark Tank.'"

The unscripted series was meant to be about apps and the developers who make them. It featured several app developers who pitched different app ideas for a chance to be mentored by influencers and entrepreneurs that included Vaynerchuk, Gwyneth Paltrow, Will.i.am, and Jessica Alba.

Mentors helped their chosen candidates build out their apps and prepared them to ask for funding from Lightspeed Venture Partners.