TLDR:
- No major difference in production quality of his first video and current days videos
- Defies all major archetypes (like what you think of Ferrari owners)
- Doesn’t use any high-end lighting or equipment like most YouTubers his size do, to go along with a production team of only 3 people
- Garnered the following he has today by pioneering bizarre video ideas that were unheard of in his niche and a unique rating system dubbed DougScore
Unveiling the quirks and features of why Doug should not be as successful as he is
THIS…. Is why Doug DeMuro should not be as successful as he is.
Traditionally, there is a direct relationship between subscribers and video quality. The more subscribers you have, the higher the quality of the video is expected to be.
That’s not the case with Doug however.
There’s hardly a difference between his first video when he started out and his current-day videos 9 years later, yet, he’s built a following of over 4.65 million subscribers on YouTube and recently sold a majority stake in his company Cars and Bids for $37 million.
This is one of the many rules of successful YouTubers he has broken, and we’ll be going over all of them today.
When you think of Ferrari owners, you probably imagine the driver behind the wheel is poshly dressed, but if the driver is Doug, you’ll see him pulling up in flip-flops ; in other words, he dresses poorly, with zero respect for high-end craftsmanship.
Doug also doesn’t use the fancy lights or equipment you’d expect YouTubers of his following to be using.
He revealed in an interview with The Verge back in August 2021 that he uses a Sony 4K camcorder to record his videos, and sometimes even his iPhone!
He even uses a simple lapel microphone.
To go with this, Doug also doesn’t even have a huge production team.
His team consists of only 3 people: his editor Nick, his best friend who opens his e-mails, and himself.
That’s it.
He has no social media managers, accountants, or any other roles you’d typically see in a YouTuber team of his scale.
This is very limited compared to say MrBeast, who has 30 people in his team, including writer Paddy Galloway, whereas Doug writes his own videos.
But then how has he been able to create a channel this big and build a successful business on the side at the same time? In spite of how crappy his video production quality is, Doug was a pioneer in the video idea quality space for automobile YouTube at the time. Just like MrBeast, he had crazy ideas that went viral and helped his channel take off.
For example, he let 20 friends and strangers drive an uninsured Ferrari 360 Modena he flew all the way to Florida on Spirit Airlines to purchase, half of which was financed by his parents through a cosigned loan.
He took Aston Martins out for CarFax appraisals, on an 800-mile road trip to Vermont while it was snowing, and even crushed cars with a Hummer and Land Rover Defender.
All of these were ideas that were completely unheard of in automobile YouTube, ideas that were very bizarre yet at the same time just as unique and intriguing in spite of the production quality.
To complement this, he has a consistent video schedule and a very likable personality that makes him relatable even to viewers who don’t know anything about cars with his unique perspective.
That unique perspective is the DougScore, a rating system he has devised to give a score to all the cars he reviews.
The poor dressing is another thing that makes him relatable to the viewer since it helps him to come across as “just a guy” who reviews cars, rather than being intimidating by dressing up in attire that’s more expensive than what the viewer can ever afford.
For someone who just stumbles across one of Doug DeMuro’s videos, it can be hard to understand why he has over 4.65 million subscribers, but his subscribers from Day 1 will tell you that his unique ideas, quirks and features and getting a 10 on the DougScore for Practical is what makes him so likable.