Apple TV+ is ‘worst marketer in the universe’ – producer
The French-language family drama “La Maison,” premiered on September 20, 2024 on Apple TV+.
The fashion drama La Maison debuted on Apple TV+ last year, earning critical praise, though French-American producer Alex Berger was frustrated with Apple’s marketing approach, calling it point-blank “the worst marketer in the universe.”
Rafa Sales Ross for Variety:
“Marketing makes a show,” he emphasized. “Apple, for example, is probably the worst marketer in the universe — the best for iPhones, the worst for television. They don’t do marketing, and it was an issue for us with ‘La Maison.’ We did a great show that had an amazing success in France and other places in Europe, but they never promoted it. It drove me crazy.”
Asked why, while believing Apple TV+ to lack in marketing efforts, did he decide to take “La Maison” to the streamer, Berger said simply: “Hope. We had hope.”
“Apple TV+ had never done a show in France and never really done a show in Europe,” adds the producer. “‘Slow Horses’ started [things] in the U.K., but it was with the U.S.. I was hoping I would change them. We got very frustrated and just thought at one point that they were shooting themselves in the foot, and why? I think Apple TV+ is the premium you get with an iPhone. It’s a closed club, a small club now. They do some amazing shows, my criticism is not on the artistic side, where they are very ambitious and have the money to back it up, but these are shows that nobody will see most of the time, which is a pity.”
MacDailyNews Take: Dude, er… mec, La Maison is a French-language show about a fashion house! Even Steve Jobs wouldn’t be able to sell foofoo squared to Americans.
Besides that, we do, however, agree as shows like Bad Monkeywhich is infinitely more marketable than La Maison had to find an audience despite Apple TV+’s bad marketing, not because of it.
How is it possible for a company to have such a high-pedigree personal computer as the Macintosh and so relatively few users?
Perhaps, no matter how you market them, some things as too good for this world?
Still, this is not the case for Apple TV+. Apple TV+ series are usually markedly better than the competition and the world deserves to see them. It’s the marketing, stupid.
The trailers for Apple TV+ series often suck compared to the quality of the actual series. For one of many examples, see the official “Bad Monkey” trailer below. If you’ve watched the series, you know how bad the trailer is. Apple marketing should have rejected it and sent those responsible back into post to try again. But, no, they released it. So, right from the get go, the marketing for the series is off on the wrong foot.
Sigh. Lose the tired 5-second preamble that Apple plops at the beginning of every trailer. It’s annoying. Just start the trailer. (But, thanks so much for the “trailer starts now” title card.) And, in the case of the trailer above, it’s cut too quickly and jams in way too many scenes which gives the trailer, and those trying to watch it, no room to breathe. It’s tedious to watch. It’s an effort to follow. It’s too long. It tries, and fails, to cover too much ground. It’s a turn off. “Bad Monkey” is a GREAT series, but you’d never know it from its amateurish trailer.
Then, and worse, Apple fails to use social media well and, yes, high-level influencers, to widely promote Apple TV+ series. One mention of a series by, say, Joe Rogan would obliterate all of the usual slapdash marketing Apple does for that series, but Apple seems to prefer hosting stale red carpet “premieres” which, at their high point, generate garishly BAD photos in which cast members and their shadows plastered up against a step-and-repeat in a group mugshot stare off in 17 different directions. It’s trash. This isn’t the 1940s. It’s a waste of money. It entices exactly nobody to watch.
Apple TV+ subscribers long ago tired of trying to sell “Severance” or “Silo” or any number of other extremely good TV series to their friends. We just watch and enjoy them in our severed silos.
Apple really needs to up its Apple TV+ marketing game if it cares to have people actually watch the content on which they’ve spent and continue spending billions.
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