I was heading off to bed when a last quick look at my email showed a note from my fellow Buffalo voice talent Dan Lenard who I haven’t heard from in a while.
Seems he’s been working with my friend (and his friend too I suppose) Nancy Wolfson from Braintracks Audio on some branding efforts for the web and he wanted to announce it to everyone.
I hope if you have a moment you’ll check out Dan and Nancy’s efforts.
Justin Kaiser, 1977-2010
So I was culling through all my Google blog feeds as I was feeling the need to purge. Some people do this annually or some people do it like me – when the feeling hits.
I decided I was tired of the uselessness of the Craigslist feeds on voice over jobs that I started following about 6-8 months ago. Then while I was removing those 365 feeds, I thought – hey I’ll do a blog post about that (cheap jobs, VO’s posting how crappy the jobs were and how craigslist is about “cheap” – always has been- so we can’t get mad about it). Meanwhile I decided to go through and look at the other feeds and maybe clean a bit.
And then I noticed a feed entitled “Creating Conversations” by Justin Kaiser, a fellow voice talent who was buried this week at the age of 33 following from complications following surgery.
And my heart sank.
Craigslist didn’t seem so important nor did just about anything else. Sigh….big sigh.
And no, I can’t bring myself to delete his blog feed.
But then I thought I’d do something that I felt might be a nice remembrance of a special part of Justin’s life – his work at Creative Identities Group.
Justin’s last blog entry (I’m pretty sure he wrote this up…but I did not confirm it….I like to think he wrote it) was posted on December 3, 2009. It was a simple post about On-hold messaging. It made me smile and I sorta feel that’s the way he would have wanted it. I hope it makes you smile too because after reading all the posts about him, I believe that would please him very much.
5 Reasons to Use On-Hold Messages
by On Hold Identity Group
In these difficult economic times it’s worth using every marketing tool available to you. On hold messages are a simple, effective and cost-efficient method of getting your marketing message out to your clients. Think of an on-hold message as a form of infomercial about your business. It’s an ideal opportunity to tell your potential customers about the products and services you offer and the benefits they can bring. No one likes to be put on hold, and many of us feel it’s a complete waste of our time. So if you can turn this into a productive, entertaining 2 or 3 minutes, your callers will appreciate it.
Your company will also appreciate the benefits, as studies conducted by major telecommunication companies revealed that approximately 20% of callers that are placed on hold will actually make purchase decisions based on what they hear while they are on hold.
So what are some of the benefits of using an on-hold message?
1. Introduce new products or services to your customers.
2. You have a captive audience why not use this valuable undivided attention – Entertain and inform them but also remind them that you value them as a customer.
3. Callers are more likely to stay on the line if they hear a message and/or background music. A caller who doesn’t stay on the line is a potential lost sale.
4. Inform your customers of general business hours and holiday time opening and closing times. Use the message to answer frequently asked questions – saving your customer service team time and resources and increasing their efficiency.
5. Tell customers the benefits of using your products and services – remind them how your company can help improve their situation and solve their problem.
Its also important to choose a voiceover artist whose voice reflects your company’s brand and image. Choose a voice that makes your company sound engaging and interesting. A voice that is clear and distinct, but also one that engenders trust and credibility. A professional voiceover artist can deliver a persuasive sales message as well as sounding polite and personable.
Official logo of the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi
Despite reports to the contrary, this is the new, official logo of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.
I am still taking this all in as the new Sochi 2014 logo has just been revealed to me. Here, I will write me thoughts on it as they come into my head (get ready for a bumpy ride in there):
> Unexpected
> More a wordmark than a logo
> Kinda 80’s
> Less iconic
> Different
> Domain name in the logo
> Not as bad as London’s logo
> Sometimes different is good
> Liked how they laid out the subtle crystal imagery in shoes, uniforms etc.
> Subtle
> Unique
> I could grow to like this
The blue and white Sochi2014.ru wordmark, which Interbrand created and Moscow introduced on Tuesday, is the first major international sports logo to include a website address. Sochi.ru appears reflected atop 2014 with the Olympic rings below .ru, the Internet code for Russia.
I think what makes the new logo work most for me is having the domain name in the mark. That recognizes where we are as a world and where we are going in a very profound way. More than branding, to me, that’s an important statement.
Not having an icon within the logo and instead using a crystal effect will require a stronger communication effort of the committee’s part.
I am not sure if they will create a mascot for these games, as has been done in the past. It’s possible organizer’s plan to use that mascot as part of the icon, but that’s just conjecture on my part.
Having personally really liked the Sochi 2014 bid logo, I was kinda hesitant with this word mark. But Russia is trying something very different and I think we have to respect that. It certainly does not evoke within me the complete distain I have for the London 2012 logo mark.
I’m not a fan of their national politics but the Olympics are not supposed to be about politics, in spite of the fact that the country is blatantly saying they are using this Olympics as a way to brand the new Russia. Honestly, that is one of the main reasons every country wants to host an Olympics ‘come see us, we’re not so bad, let’s stay friends after the Games are over, maybe we’ll do some business together.’ There not a hammer or sickle in sight (the icon of the USSR to which Russia is most often associated) and they only red in the logo is the red circle of the Olympic logo. Sometimes it’s what is omitted that sends the biggest message.
Or maybe I’m reading too much into it.
Now that I have totally skewed your opinion of all this, I hope you’ll still share your immediate thoughts on the new Sochi 2014 logo.
Back in the early 1950’s 😉 when I started out blogging about voice overs (and marketing and advertising), there were like…5 of us. Now there’s a double-decker London bus full of voice over bloggers.
While I think I have them all listed here and subscribe to them all, I know that the playing field changes fast and frequently. That coupled with the fact that some bloggers fall of the face of the earth or get bored with blogging means my list needs updating. If you’d rather not watch paint dry, you can always sift through a listing of voice over bloggers to see who is still actively publishing…the effect is the same but voice over blog list actually feels more tortuous.
Example: one blog I THOUGHT I was subscribed to and had listed here was Paul Strikwerda’s blog called Double Dutch. Very good blog and you should subscribe.
Today I realized this omission and fixed it. But it reminded me to ask you if you have a voice over blog and are not listed with a link on voxmarketising.com to:
1. Please let me know this and I will correct the error
2. If you haven’t already, please link back from your blog to this blog (audio’connell’s voxmarketising – is the proper name and the address is http://www.voxmarketising.com) So simple, even a caveman can do it.
3. If you have ceased blogging and are on my list, just ping me and I’ll pull you off the list.
Thanks.
2014 Winter Olympic logo (maybe)
If you’re looking for rumors or gossip, this is absolutely the wrong blog to visit. We don’t gossip or spread rumors here. Tisn’t nice and we’re a nice blog. So no rumors.
But we’re OK with idle chitchat.
So the idle chitchat we came across today involves one of our favorite topics – Olympic logos and the possible sighting of the new official logo for the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia. See that graphic up there…that’s supposedly it.
Official 2014 Sochi Olympic Bid logo
Now for their bid, Sochi submitted this logo which we here at voxmarketising were very fond of. But the new logo (if indeed it is the official logo) probably sets the correct tone for what this historic international competition should be: global, friendly and inviting. This would be likely positioning for the Games anywhere they were held and a valuable world branding opportunity for Mother Russia, whose legacy does not always evoke the warm and fuzzies in many places.
I will miss the Sochi bid logo (which clearly did its job well) but hold great hope for the 2014 Winter Games under their new logo (if in fact this is the final choice, as it’s only idle chitchat presently).
What do you think of the new/proposed logo?
And by props I mean propaganda film for the many culinary treasures my hometown offers its residents and visitors.
Thanks to a tip from my sister on Facebook, I was directed to this short film produced by John Paget (who I just met a few weeks ago) and his company Paget Films, for the Buffalo Convention and Visitors Bureau.
Two things of note in this piece, called “Eat It Up”:
1. I can vouch for the authenticity of the content in this film. We have an incredibly wide variety of terrific food choices in this city.
2. We have MANY days without snow and we’re darn good looking when we want to. I hope you’ll come taste and see for yourself someday.
Kudos to John and his team, the film was great.
