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In this special episode of the Marketing Vanguard podcast, host Jenny Rooney speaks with media and marketing legend Gary Vaynerchuk. They explore the future of marketing, how creative content is reshaping reach, the rise of live shopping, and the need for brands to adapt to the fast-evolving social media landscape.
The Vaynerchuk family immigrated to the U.S. from Belarus in 1978, starting in a small studio apartment in Queens before settling in New Jersey. Even from a young age, Vaynerchuk had a knack for business, first with a lemonade franchise at age 7, then selling baseball cards and toys in high school.
At 14, he joined his family’s liquor business, where he saw the early internet as an “untapped land” in the late ’90s. Transforming his father’s store into one of the country’s first ecommerce sites for alcohol, Vaynerchuk rebranded it as Wine Library, growing sales from $4 million to $60 million.
In 2006, he launched WineLibraryTV, one of YouTube’s first long-form video series, which led to national TV appearances and his growing reputation as a digital marketing pioneer. After his 2008 keynote at Web 2.0, Vaynerchuk published Crush It! with HarperCollins, a bestseller that launched his career in media and as an angel investor in companies like Facebook, Twitter, and Uber.
He went on to co-found VaynerMedia with his brother AJ, building it into a leading digital agency with top clients like PepsiCo and Johnson & Johnson. Expanding his media ventures, Vaynerchuk acquired PureWow, launched several bestselling books, created The #AskGaryVee show, and grew his personal brand to over 44 million followers across social platforms. His life goal remains owning the New York Jets.
“For the first time in the history of marketing, the creative creates the reach,” he says on the podcast. “And if it creates reach, it earned it. When you understand that truth, it will flip this industry upside down, putting social creative at the starting point, not the matching luggage to a campaign we’re doing at the end.”
Key takeaways:
01:22 Why Social Media Is More Than Just an Add-On — Driven by advanced social media platforms, Vaynerchuk highlights that today’s social media platforms offer marketers a unique opportunity: organic content itself can drive massive reach and generate invaluable consumer insights without the heavy costs of traditional media campaigns. Social isn’t just an add-on; it’s a powerful, data-rich starting point. Testing creative ideas directly on platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube shorts allows brands to quickly see what resonates and adjust in real-time, saving on ad spend and connecting more authentically with audiences.