What’s with the yellow people trying to boost the Central Okanagan’s gig economy

Doom and gloom about the high cost of living has definitely become repetitive, but a troupe of yellow-clad creatives are trying to help people turn things around by boosting the gig economy in the Okanagan.

The characters in yellow are part of a marketing campaign for bibidi, an app set to launch next month that plans to be a local marketplace for service providers, gig workers and side hustlers in the Central Okanagan. The app’s colour scheme uses yellow.

“We really are specializing in that gig economy and those independent contractors, providing them a space with all of the tools all in one place,” bibidi’s CEO and founder Tiffani Hardie told iNFOnews.ca.

“(Service providers) can make their calendar so people can see when they’re available. (Customers) can see the services they do, how much they cost, book them, pay them.”

View this post on Instagram

The app is meant to be a big marketplace for anyone selling a service like dog walkers, movers, cleaners, landscapers, hairdressers and more.

“We’ve even had a lot of artists come out and say I want to do murals, I want to do dog portraits, things like that,” she said. “You work full time, you do dog portraits in the evening or whatever, how do you actually find the people that want you?

“Like, my mom would pay $200 for a dog portrait. So the people are out there, they just need to get connected.”

More and more people are looking for second jobs or gig work these days, and the popular options like DoorDash or Uber aren’t serving employees well, and Hardie said that’s what she heard when speaking with people around Kelowna.

“Inflation has outpaced wages for four years running. I mean, people need to do extra work right now just to kind of fill the gap,” she said.

Hardie said the “yellow man” promotion is ongoing, and if people keep a lookout for someone looking like a Simpsons character and grab a photo with them it earns them a $100 coupon for services when the app launches.

“If you see our yellow man, and there’s lots of us, we go out every week. If you see us and you catch us and you get a picture with us, then you get a $100 gift card for when we open to get maybe your windows washed or your hair cut or whatever service it is you need,” she said.

She said the focus is on Kelowna and the Central Okanagan because that’s where the app’s team is from. She said starting small and making the service work locally before expanding is the best way to create something that’s powered by people.

“Launching here made the most sense because we know the community. We trust the community. We love the community,” she said. “There are other service platforms out there. Most of them are in big cities and in the U.S., and generally what they do is they just kind of toggle cities on and put up billboards and say, ‘I’m here.’”

The app is set to launch in May and Hardie said the goal is to have 1,200 service providers on board before putting up for customers.

“We’re filling the app and then we’re opening it to the community,” she said. “There’s a bit of a call out for action there… an invitation to the service provider community to call us or check out our app.”