The mystery of selection.
Traveling is another strategy to increase earnings in the promo world, but the gig posts released are always looking for locals only. Here's why!
..... BLOG: Why Staffers Are Obsessed With Booking Locals.....
Ok, maybe they’re not obsessed. But you see it all the time whether it’s a post on social media or an email or an announcement in a portal, MUST BE LOCAL or LOCALS ONLY or any other cute way they phase it. Ya’ll get it, Staffers only want locals. But as a promo, ya’ll also know that if you ONLY applied for gigs that were local to you, you run the huge risk of not making a decent income. Traveling for events is apart of the game for many of you in the field. It most certainly was when I was out in the field. So why are Staffers so against letting you travel in on your own accord to work an event? Here are 3 of the many reasons why.
#1). The Client Requested Locals Only
These types of requests are documented, so to go against the request is disrespectful and leads down a shady boulevard called Bad For Business which crosses over Who Booked Them Avenue. This is not a hot seat that the Staffer EVER wants to be in. We can persuade only so much. At the end of the day, we must fulfill the signed contract. Yes, there are times where circumstance prevents certain arrangements, but best practices would have had a paper trail of everything done in our power to prevent said circumstances. This is one of the reasons why you’ll see a Staffer continue to post the same event on social media or you’ll see the same event be emailed to you and so forth.
Now I know many of ya’ll swear up and down, it’s not the client, but sometimes the client is requesting local for their own personal reasons. Clients come up with some strange reasons for their requests. I once had a client who didn’t want anyone who had bangs simply because they didn’t like bangs. As a Staffer, we must juggles requests like this and there are times the client requests for locals only.
#2). Locals Are More Loyal To Events That Are Local To Them
Staffers are responsible for the teams they put together. A good Staffer wants to make sure their team feels like a person and not a spot to fill. We want our team to feel that we are there for them throughout the event. Imagine being a local and all of the gigs are given away to those who traveled in. What predicament do you think a Staffer would find themselves in if this was the norm for how they staff? It'll be a cold day when a Staffer starts wanting to book locals when the Staffer has left a bad taste in folk's mouths.
As an independent contractor for most team members, a Staffer booking as many local events cuts down on the contractor’s overhead from a business aspect. This makes the event more desirable hence strengthening their loyalty to their booking and actually showing up for their shift. Overhead such as gas, mileage, travel time, parking fees, lodging, etc. isn't a big of a deal when the team member is local. Team members can carpool with other locals to lessen the money they spend on gas. Rideshare to the event to keep the miles off their personal vehicle and avoid paying for parking at the event. They don’t have to wake up as early to get ready for the event and after the event, they don’t have a long ride home after a long day of work. There’s no lodging costs or sofa surfing. Much of the to do-s a non-local would have to deal with isn’t an issue. If something happens that delays them from clocking in on time, the probability of them simply being tardy versus someone traveling in who is likely to miss a third of their shift is higher. Let’s say a local team member's car breaks down, a local could find a location they know they can trust to have their car towed and call a ride to still make it to their shift and check up on their vehicle after they clock out. The perks of being local. Whereas, a non-local isn’t as willing to leave their vehicle in the hands of people they don’t know in a city they don’t know forreal (which is understandable). Odds are they feel more at ease getting their vehicle towed home or they stay with their vehicle until it’s fixed to ensure they have their ride home (simply because they aren't local). And who can blame them?
#3). When You’re Not Local... If, For Whatever Reason, You Cannot Make Your Shift, It’s Harder For Your Staffer To Bounce Back (If They Can).
I can go all day in many directions on how stressful this situation can get. Zero to 100 real quick. In no way are Staffers fortune tellers. We know this. We can’t predict the future. We know this. We’re only human and we don’t get it right everytime. However, there are things we try our best to avoid for many reasons. But one of the major reasons is because you not showing up can cause that experiential marketing company money and in some cases possible future contracts.
So here we go ... Let’s say the event is a one-day event. And you applied for the booking because it was worth it to you even though the event isn’t local to you. You get booked, yay! The Staffer booked you for good enough reasons even though they could have booked a local. But none of that matters, because you got the booking. Now, it’s the day of the event, you live 2 hours away from the event and your shift starts at 8am. Everything is going good and you’re leaving the house around 5:30am-ish. Enough time to be to get on-site on time. While on your way you're about an hour away from the end now and then something bad happens. Something like a train stopped on the tracks, or your car broke down, or an unusual traffic jam happens, etc., the point is you’re about an hour away and the odds are not in your favor and it's almost 7am. So you reach out to your Staffer or Event Manager at 6:45am in the morning.
Answer me this. Answer me this. Answer ... me ... this. What is the probability that someone is up checking emails for last-minute-day-of-replacement-booking opportunities at 6:45 in the morning... on a Saturday? The alarm clocks haven’t even gone off yet for the locals who were booked for this event. Even they are still sleeping. Who knows how long it’s going to take for your situation to resolve, let alone if it resolves in the Staffer’s favor.
So what should the Staffer do:
A.) Hope you make it and go back to sleep?
B.) Make an executive decision to just let the pieces fall however they may and explain to their boss that it is what it is and to just reimburse the client for the time unfulfilled?
C.) Get up, send out emails, post on social media, send out text messages and make phone calls to folks who may or may not be able to show up in your place because they already booked another event when you didn't book them the first go-round, but let's try anyway.
If you pick "C," you're top in your class. And just to put it out there, it really doesn’t matter when the event starts, the timeframe of occurrences are still the same. The event could have been 6p and the event starts at 7:30p. Who’s to say that the Staffer isn’t grocery shopping at that time or on a date. We (Staffers) staff multiple events that fall on the same day or even overlap dates, so rearranging our personal lives around events isn’t possible. A Staffer’s window to resolve and repair the damage is already small, ESPECIALLY if the event is a one-day event. There is no second day to make up the time of missing hours. Always keep in mind that there are a lot of politics that go into contracts for the events we staff for. Just trust me. This situation is extreme pressure.
But when a plan comes together and the Staffer is able to bounce back, it's glorious!
The satisfaction that comes when a Staffer can get things back on track from a company’s stand-point is solid gold! So when a Staffer takes the risk to book you for an event and you’re not local to the event, recognize just how much is riding on the line. Do not take it lightly.
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