Last month Danil Nevsky, of Indie Bartender, and Oisin Davis from Great Irish Beverages, teamed up to combat the global labor shortage, one brand ambassador at a time. The duo launched Ambassador Residency Club, or ARC, which brings together a rotating selection of brand ambassadors and bars around the world, in an effort to combat the post-COVID-19 labor shortage.
Bars do not have to pay to be in the program, and neither do brands. All brands have to do is allow one of their ambassadors to work four shifts within a month at a bar of their choice. Brand ambassadors are paid their normally salary for their guest shifts, and while they can promote their respective brand, they’re asked to do so respectfully. The priority here is on giving back and acting in service of bars who need additional help.
RELATED: Minneapolis Cocktail Lounge Prioritizes Accessibility for All Patrons
Nevsky and Davis donate their time to ARC, and receive nothing in return. “If you’re going to help people, then just help them. If you’re doing it for your own benefit, then don’t call it ‘helping out’,” says Nevsky via email. “There’s enough bullshit in this world and this is not the time to add more to the pile.”
ARC’s inaugural month saw Andrei Korobkov, Global Ambassador for Tselovalnik Russian Vodka working in El Copitas in Saint Petersburgh, Russia, and Ben Curtis, National Ambassador for Hendrick’s Gin, picked up shifts at The Exchequer in Dublin, Ireland.
This month, ARC has two new ambassadors. Miguel Fajardo, a Thomas Henry Brand Ambassador, is doing his residency at Maria Bonita in Madrid, Spain; and Jameson Brand Ambassador, Maksim Shirokov, is at Zhuravli Bar in Moscow City, Russia.
Bar & Restaurant spoke with Nevsky to find out more about this initiative.
Do you feel Brand Ambassadors have a responsibility to get behind the stick again?
A lot of us need a wakeup call about the situation that we’re in. My wakeup call happened before the pandemic. A bunch of bartenders from the city I learned to bartend in keep in touch in a WhatsApp group. One of us went back to visit and complained about the current standard of the cocktail bars. In response, another friend made an eye-opening comment about the status quo, “All of you fuckers left the city for the capital, or to become became brand ambassadors. Who the fuck did you expect to help raise the next generation?” Brand ambassadors have to remember where they came from, and that the bar community needs their help now more than ever… If there’s no one left to come to your masterclasses, then your job isn’t going to be around much longer!
READ MORE: It’s Too Much. We’re Exhausted. Maybe This Will Help.
So far, your partnerships have been in Russia, Ireland and Spain. Do you have plans to expand to the USA?
Our plans are completely global, and we hope this Q&A will help find potential candidates in the USA! The difficult task is always making sure the bars actually need the help, and managing the whole aspect. Every country has its issues, and the US has a lot of state-specific laws, as well as unions. We also want to strike a balance, so bar owners are not taking advantage of free labor when they can hire an unemployed person during this crisis.
How can brand ambassadors and bars get involved?
If you’re a bar, get in touch with us through email or Instagram. Tell us where you are and what your situation is. If you’re a brand, do the same. Get in touch through email or Instagram, and let us know where your brand ambassadors are, so we can help match them to bars. We have a full deck for brand ambassadors to help them explain ARC to their managers and help convince them. If you want to help us spread the message, the easiest way is to share this article or follow us on Instagram. If you know a business that is struggling, let us know!
What was the learning curve like for you, launching ARC?
Christ where do I begin? There were a lot of curveballs thrown at us during the launch that we’ve had to carefully dodge. Culture, politics and laws are so different globally, you have to be really careful when executing something like this. Not to mention everyone is looking for a hidden agenda or secret fee for making this happen. There’s a mentality that there’s no such thing as a free lunch, and brand managers are a nightmare to convince sometimes. Last but not least, most brand ambassadors are ex-bartenders. And, as much as I love them, let’s just say it’s like herding cats sometimes.
What is your ultimate goal for ARC?
For this project not to exist! Unlike most projects this one has a definitive end. As things stabilize and get back to normal, work positions will be filled. So, at some point, this will end. Until then, we want to help as many bars as possible. If, at the end of all of this, we can say that we helped X amount of bar owners stay in business, and we helped bring our community together, then I’m happy.
Follow us on Facebook and Instagram for all the latest industry news