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How to choose a Voice Artists

July 14, 2013 | General

All Good Things Take Time

Selecting voice artists should never be a last-minute afterthought. It should be an integral part of your project; meaning that you should have a particular style of voice in mind from the creation of your concept through to the writing of your script.

Whether it’s an advertising campaign or a corporate video, the voice you use will be crucial to its effectiveness, so extra time should always be taken to get it exactly right.

And time is something no one seems to have much of these days. Radio stations in particular seem to be more time-poor than most. In fact, they use their ability to get an ad to air the next day as a selling point to their clients.

The result of this is that the script is often thrown together by an overworked copywriter, who then collars the first jock passing in the corridor and drags him into the recording booth. The result? Mediocrity and an absence of cut-through because:

The announcer’s voice is not right for the ad

His voice is also on dozens of other commercials currently on air.

Too much time these days seems to be spent on plotting demographics and negotiating spot rates and too little time is spent on the product itself – the message.

And clients can be guilty of it as well. Rather than allowing an extra couple of days and spending an extra few dollars, they either opt for a station voice or, worse still, they decide to voice it themselves.

This might make them a star amongst their friends and family, but when it’s heard by their target audience, such an obvious lack of professionalism can actually damage the client’s brand.

So how much extra time are we talking about here? Well, not a lot actually. A great voice can still be sourced fairly promptly (usually within a day or so), particularly as many voice actors work from home studios.

But even a great voice needs some direction to make it really great. A good producer will work with a voice artist to deliver the script’s key message in the most effective way. And  good voice artists will take that direction and build on it by adding their own unique stamp.

The bottom line is, if you give the voice studio a little extra time to do justice to your script, you will be rewarded with a much better product; one that will stand out from the rest and do what it was designed to do … generate more sales for your business.