Choosing the perfect voice over talent for your project is important, because the right voice will really bring your script to life. Understanding the subtle nuances of a script, getting ‘inside’ its meaning and being able to deliver a read that communicates and engages with an audience is even more critical in today’s noisy, fast-paced, message-cluttered world.

In this collection of blogs, we’ll unpack and share tips on a range of topics, including:

1. How to get the most of your selected voice overs
2. The best ways to brief a voice over talent
3. Communicating with voice over talent who don’t speak English
4. Things to be mindful of when you’re writing a script

… and more.

Plus, we’ll interview some of our star producers and voice over artists, find out what makes them tick, ask them for advice and discover how they got their start in the audio production and voice over industry.

Seth Godin made the comment that ‘reach is overrated.’ In a sense he’s right. Our brief should not be to try to reach EVERYONE with our message (which can result in waste and inefficiency). Instead, when we create content, we should be trying to reach people who care, and communicate to them in a way that engages with them on a deeper level. In Seth’s words, “running an ad on the most popular podcast isn’t smart if the most popular podcast reaches people who don’t care about you.”

To reach ‘people who care’, and connect with them, it’s important both the script and voice over are written and recorded with the target audience firmly in mind. A conversational, authentic voice delivery is an increasingly popular request - and a very good place to start - because we’re wired to talk with and listen to people we trust. A voice talent delivering a read that is believable, that sounds trustworthy and authentic is far more likely to connect with a like-minded audience.

Although you may be led to believe otherwise, traditional broadcast media (radio and television) is still a very powerful medium which which to reach consumers. While both may be aiming for as large a reach as possible, it is very possible to segment their mass audiences in a number of ways and find the ‘people who care’ among the large cume. For example, buying spots in particular programmes or certain times of a day will help achieve this. However, it’s important that the creative of a commercial - the script, voice over and visuals - are designed clearly to reach those people who care about your message/product/service.

It’s critical that any piece of content or advertising spot has a clear goal and well executed creative to ensure it gets results. While some people may say that placing so much important on casting the right voice over is a long bow to draw, the importance cannot be overstated.

Our hope is that the blogs in this category will be informative, interesting and useful reading. As we always say to hundreds of would-be and up and coming voice over talent - the art of delivering a great voice over is one that can only be learned through years of experience of reading scripts. It just takes practice!

Because it’s not just content that is king, great content is king!