David Dobrik, how he became the Internet's poster child for good deeds

April 2021 UPDATE: This article was written before all the allegations against Dobrik came out in March 2021. From those, Dobrik has made some videos apologizing, he’s lost almost all of his brand deals, had to leave his own company and take a long hard look in the mirror to reflect on his content, plan, and team. This article was written back then when he had a meteoric rise across many channels not just YouTube and TikTok. This piece is not an endorsement of David or anything he has done but a piece that dives into what he does and how does it. It does not go deep into the allegations, controversies and details regarding Dobrik and friends, if you came here looking for that, go google and find it elsewhere. Thanks.

David Julian Dobrik is a 23 year old (as of 2020) YouTuber and a social media star. He’s also the winner of multiple Shorty awards and Kids’ Choice Awards and he’s the co-host of one of the biggest comedy podcasts, Views alongside Jason Nash. Outside of that, he’s given away many Teslas and is known for registering over 100,000 people to vote, despite being a DACA recipient himself (meaning he cannot vote).

That definitely reads like a Wikipedia article. Well, that’s kind of the start I wanted.

So, let’s continue the Wikipedia-esque writing. Read on to learn more about why David’s format works, his origin, his businesses (he has a few) and his content strategy.

David was born in Slovakia and moved to the suburbs of Chicago, Illinois at age 9.

He attended Vernon Hills High School and was pretty good at tennis to say the least. He was always the class clown and you can see why when you take a look at his old Vines. He loves to make people laugh.

Dobrik moved to Los Angeles right after high school to pursue Vine full-time. He’d made some money off of it but he decided to forgo college and double down on making Vine a career. He started collaborating with some other Viners but his growth on the platform didn’t take off like other stars on the platform.

While most Viners like Logan Paul, King Bach, Amanda Cerny were making almost 6 figures from posts, David was making a small fraction of that.

But he had a dream and an idea. What if he took these skit ideas and posted elsewhere?

Instead, he started filming smaller bits and compiled them into short videos for YouTube. This was before vlogs and where 10 minute videos were better for ad revenue. For most YouTube content creators, they focus on ad revenue on their videos. It’s been this way for almost 15 years. There was a time in 2012-2016 where 10 minutes meant you could qualify for more AdSense. But instead of adapting to the norm, David decided to make his content shorter.

Ad companies also only want their ads on content that they deem as universally friendly. Family friendly channels, not ones where people excessively drink, pranks, and general college age debauchery.

And of course, if you’ve seen any David Dobrik vlog, you know it’s an amalgamation of all of that. It feels like you’re back in college (if you’re older) and just hanging with a group of friends.

This was his first vlog from back in 2015.

A few things to note about this first vlog. It’s not 4 minutes and 20 seconds, an ode to 4/20 that would be a staple for his vlog lengths in years to come.

There’s no consortium of established characters in this vlog.

There’s no celebrities, no brand deals, just a bunch of friends goofing off.

David has maintained an untainted authenticity in 600+ vlogs over the last 5 years. Consistency and approachability are strong contributing factors to his success as a creator. Taking a page out of Dobrik’s playbook, his sitcom-like content strategy crosses platforms and has diversified his income and monetization strategy. His following of 50M+ across all platforms is no accident, it’s incredibly well-thought out and strategic.

That raw authenticity is what sets him apart from the pack and his ability to consistently deliver for years on end is unparalleled.

WHY DOBRIK’S FORMAT WORKS

Much like a regular sitcom, there’s a regular cast, a recurring cast and celebrity cameos. There’s a laugh track. There’s a predictable pacing to the show. There’s moments that people can recall vividly. The exact staples of a sitcom.

Think of Friends or Big Bang Theory (or whatever your favorite sitcom is), two huge sitcoms in their own right. Now when you were reading the word Friends in the last line, what did you think of? Central Perk? Your favorite line from the show? Your favorite character? (Mine is Joey). Exactly.

When you read Big Bang Theory, did you think of the laugh track? Maybe your favorite scene, your favorite character (Mine is Raj).

That’s what makes sitcoms sitcoms. They’re memorable. Whether it’s your favorite character or scene, you remember them because they follow the same format. Especially the ones with laugh tracks.

Dobrik took that format and adapted it to YouTube. No big production. No scriptwriters and cable TV. No huge brand or company behind him.

David is the director, editor and puppet master behind it all. His friends act as characters in the show, as well as some brand, some recurring. Each person is different and has a role. And they all play it well. It’s authentic. Real. The vibe you get is that everyone is friends with everyone else. It makes you want to be a part of their friend group. It’s all fun. No gimmicks.

And that part that sets Dobrik apart from the rest is that he’s figured ways to seamlessly interweave celebrities and brands into his vlogs. Take Seatgeek, a relatively unknown company before it starts sponsoring David’s vlogs. Now Seatgeek is synonymous with Dobrik. Fans literally do Seatgeek ad reads for him.

Name another brand that has FANS doing ad reads for them for free. I’ll wait.

DOBRIK’S SCHEDULE

David had a wicked schedule that sounds insanely grueling but he’s said multiple times he loved the hustle. The reason I said “had” is because he stopped posting vlogs on YouTube almost 4 months ago now once Coronavirus made it harder and harder for him to hangout with his rotating cast of characters in his videos.

During his peak, he posted videos Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays (3x a week) and each video was 4 min 20 seconds long. It seems like a small commitment in sheer watch length, but David’s pacing and setup of skits was the grueling part of his schedule.

In interviews, he’d mention that he’d routinely film for hours upon hours and have to edit down days of footage into a 20-30 second clip that would have a setup, punchline and payoff. Sometimes even shorter than 20 seconds. As an editor myself, that cadence of forcing yourself to cut out content is incredibly difficult.

DOBRIK’S OTHER CONTENT

David Dobrik is an absolute wizard at creating supplementary content after building a rabid fan base of the original vlogs on YouTube. He also started a podcast with Jason Nash called Views which is a top 10 podcast in the comedy segment.

Outside of that, Dobrik has migrated to TikTok as his main posting platform for content and it is awesome. I highly recommend you follow him on TikTok to check out what he’s currently up to. As a creator with almost 24M followers on TikTok, he is one of the few creators who has successfully pulled off transferring their audience from one platform (YouTube) to another (TikTok).

DOBRIK’S BUSINESS MODEL

Let’s take a look at David Dobrik’s business model. Like most creators he makes money from the 4 main categories: Adsense, brand deals, merch, and paid content.

What’s interesting about David Dobrik is he’s launched other businesses outside of these 4 income streams. He recently launched David’s Perfume, which is exactly what it sounds like with two different product offerings.

Two product offerings, basically cologne at $60 each. While it’s not known how much revenue he is making from product sales on the perfume, it’s the first time a creator has launched their own brand. Many influencers and creators partner with brands to launch fragrances, but this is the first time a creator has launched their own. Even the names of the two products are just “David Dobrik 001” and “David Dobrik 002”

Outside of the perfume income, he also has a top 10 podcast with comedian and fellow vlog squad member, Jason Nash. It’s a long running joke on the podcast that the ad income is split 70-30 in favor of David but the podcast does generate some income for Dobrik & Nash both. Views is a weekly podcast with a rotating gang of characters and gives the consumer a little more insight into the life of someone like David Dobrik.

Dobrik also started streaming on Twitch periodically playing Call of Duty with friends. His twitch following is slowly growing and there is a very small income stream from donations and subscribers that comes from Twitch. Many rabid fans will tune into his stream not for the elite gameplay (David is good, but not the best), they’ll tune in for the friendly banter between his friends and for his sense of humor. That alone makes his fans tune in and stay to watch him game.

THE BOTTOM LINE

Dobrik is on an absolute rocket ship when it comes to content creation and he is diversifying across all mediums (physical and digital). His content across all platforms is entertaining and his ability to lean into his audience and be entertaining across different mediums make him quite the personality to be around.

Dobrik’s future is incredibly bright. He’s diversifying across all mediums and doing it at such a high level that he’s setting the blueprint for creators to follow after him. Personally, I’m a huge fan and excited to see where he goes next.

This is the first edition of the Creator’s Digest.

I’ll dive deep into a single creator on a weekly basis and look at things like their schedule, business model, and provide some links on their content.

This is an ever-changing experiment and my first take at long-form writing, so please if you have any feedback, feel free to DM me on any platform @shardulgo.

BIG thank you’s & Credits to:

Blake Robbins: Inspiration for writing this post

Casey Golden (proofreader)

Terri Hanson Mead (proofreader)

Shannon Yang (proofreader)