You quoted less because you are in Scotland and the client is in London. Nobody asked you to.
That reflex costs Scottish creators more over a year than any booking they lost to a competitor, and it rests on an assumption that stopped being true the moment the work became files rather than a shoot the client attends.
Distance affects a small share of the work
Almost all UGC is filmed at home, in an ordinary room or an ordinary street, and delivered as a link. The buyer is not coming. They were never coming. Where you stand while you film has no effect on what arrives in their inbox.
When it genuinely does matter
Three cases, and they are the exceptions rather than the rule. When the brand wants to be present at the shoot. When the product cannot be posted, because it is heavy, chilled, or an experience rather than an object. And when the brief needs a specific location that only exists somewhere else.
In all three, charge for travel as a separate line and do not absorb it into a lower fee. In every other case, your postcode is not a discount.
What Scotland has that a London booking cannot buy
Landscape within an hour of a city, which for outdoor, food, drink and travel briefs is an asset a London creator has to fly to reach.
An accent that British audiences have long treated as trustworthy, to the point where it has been a deliberate preference in advertising and in customer service for decades. That is a market observation rather than a measurement, and it is worth naming in a pitch rather than apologising for.
And a client base of its own. Scotland has its own agencies, its own public and tourism bodies, its own universities, and a food and drink sector that exports under a name people recognise. Those buyers are not looking in London.
The two buyers want opposite things
A Scottish public body or tourism client wants the place to be visible. A London brand usually wants it neutral, so the video works across the whole country.
The same footage cannot do both, and creators discover this in the edit. Decide which buyer a piece is for before you choose where to stand.
| The job | Does your location matter | What to charge for |
|---|---|---|
| Filmed at home, delivered as files | No | The work, at the same rate as anywhere |
| Product posted to you | No | The work, plus nothing for postage you did not pay |
| Brand wants to attend | Yes | Travel as a separate line, or they come to you |
| A specific location in the brief | Yes, in your favour if it is here | The location as part of the value, not a discount |
| Same day turnaround in London | Yes, decline it | Nothing, this is not your job |
The last row matters as much as the others. There are briefs your location genuinely rules out, and saying so quickly earns more trust than stretching to cover them badly.
Glasgow and Edinburgh are two client bases
They are fifty minutes apart and they buy different things.
Glasgow holds most of the production and media base, which means more agency work, more volume, and clients who already know what a creator brief looks like. Edinburgh holds finance, tourism, the festivals and a dense layer of institutions, which means fewer content-native buyers and more clients for whom you will be the first creator they have hired.
Neither is better. They need a different first email, and creators who write the same one to both notice the reply rate difference without ever working out why.
Keep reading
- Niche or Generalist as a UGC Creator in the UK
- Filming UGC in British Light
- Getting Paid as a UGC Creator in the UK
- Testing UGC at Volume in the UK
- The complete UGC guide for the UK
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Frequently asked questions
Should I charge less because I am not in London?
No. If the work is filmed where you are and delivered as files, your location changes nothing about what the client receives. Charge for travel only when travel is actually happening.
Is being in Scotland a disadvantage for UK brands?
For most briefs it is neutral, and for outdoor, food, drink and travel work it is an advantage. The accent is also a long-standing preference in British advertising rather than something to play down.
Glasgow or Edinburgh for finding clients?
Both, with different messages. Glasgow has more agencies and more volume. Edinburgh has more first-time buyers who need the format explained before they can say yes.