MrBeast says his copycats won't succeed, and experts agree (2024)

Youshaei said there's a difference between "plagiarism, which is not good, and remixing and elevating."

'Copy with taste'

He describes the latter as "copy with taste," which "is elevating the past, giving credit, and then blending from different sources."

Donaldson agreed that copycat content is noticeable because a creator will post a video where the only difference between his and theirs is their level of resources.

"We don't need someone else doing my videos with lower budget and less effort," Donaldson said. "We need people doing their own version of it with their own unique spin and taste."

Donaldson pointed to Ryan Trahan, a YouTuber with 15 million subcribers, as an example of a creator who was inspired by him but has developed his own original style.

"Ryan has his own voice; he's quirky," Donaldson said. "We need more people like that."

Xavier English, the founder of content creation agency Supermix, told Business Insider that simply copying the surface layer of a popular video is "missing the point."

While it may help in the short term by generating a good number of views, there will remain a lack of understanding about why it worked in the first place, and that will backfire, he said.

Creators that do this also "ooze fakeness," English said, which "audiences can smell a mile away."

"You could drop MrBeast at a Neanderthal campfire 50,000 years ago, and he'd probably tell a story with a 70% audience retention rate," English said.

"His content doesn't succeed because of what you can see on the surface or flash-in-the-pan trends. It's because of a deeper understanding of timeless human psychology."

Copycats are 10 steps behind

Katya Varbanova, the owner of content marketing firm Viral Marketing Stars, told BI that being yourself is in, and copying what others do is out.

"The difference between pioneers like MrBeast and copycats is that pioneers are 10 steps ahead," she said, "making it impossible for copycats to win because the pioneer is learning from and making mistakes the copycat hasn't even gotten to yet."

Knockoffs of popular creators aren't likely to win in the long run, Varbanova said, because "they'll always be a few steps behind."

The main difference between copying and inspiration is "lazy research," Varbanova added.

"Copying is where you simply follow what your competitors do," she said. "Inspiration is when your competitors' content is only one piece of the puzzle in your research."

Donaldson, for instance, started out performing challenges in his bedroom (like counting to 100,000 in one sitting). He gradually increased the ambition, budget, and scale of his stunts until he is where he is now: recreating Squid Game, shredding Lambourginis, burying himself alive, or stranding himself on a desert island.

Isla Moon, a fishing influencer and OnlyFan star, told BI it's difficult to find "a truly original idea" as a content creator. But copying is not the answer.

"It just leaves a sour taste in your mouth because it's simply a lack of effort on their part," she said.

Copying Donaldson will also not work because he has such vast resources that almost nobody else has access to, so any copycats are likely to be underwhelming.

"If you're basing your whole content idea on what someone else is doing, you'll run out of ideas eventually because you're solely dependent on what someone else is doing without throwing in anything new," she said. "It's just not sustainable."

Kaye Putnam, a psychology-based brand strategist at Freewyld, told BI that originality pays off in the end, not being a "secondary version" of someone you aspire to be like.

The key to building a strong brand is for creators to understand who they are and how they can express that to the world — looking inward before focusing on others for inspiration.

"Stop trying to model what success looks like," Putnam said. "Yes, it's natural to model success, but the less you try to be like someone else, the more attention that you get for your work."