It is the most over hyped day in America. A game and an event that allows the NFL’s already collectively outstretched egos to be supersized for 24 hours.

It’s Super Bowl Sunday.

While I may be risking legal life and limb even writing the ridiculously (in my opinion) over protected term Super Bowl (I don’t know the copyright law covering its usage in blogs that don’t produce any revenues), I do so in a marketing vein. Because, as everyone knows, you can’t have a Super Bowl without a Super Bowl logo.

To wit I came across this page of all the Super Bowl logos. You’d think that with all the money that goes towards this silliness, the selections would be a bit more eye catching but maybe I’m the one with bad taste.

While you watch hours of pre-game drivel, won’t you place your vote here for your single favorite logo version among all the Super Bowl logos?

And for the record, in spite of my superficial distain for such a mundane event…yeah I’ll watch it.

But only for the commercials.

Tags: commentary, logo design, marketing by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
3 Comments »

Creating the Unofficial NBC Nightly News Voice Off was an epiphany for many reasons not the least of which was the power of the web.

1. Until the very moment I came up with the idea, I really hadn’t been searching for a breakthrough idea for the blog which would garner lots of attention. After the event’s successful completion, I’m still not. While the blog is an important web marketing tool, it remains for me a creative outlet that, while I hope others enjoy, laugh and learn from it, doesn’t need be anything else besides that outlet. I am however thrilled that the blog provided a useful channel through which the idea could blossom. For those two reasons, I really am happy I have the blog.

2. There are so many tremendous voice over talents that I “met” for the first time through this exercise. Many I had known of for years and some are even great friends but coming across so many heretofore unheard (by me) voices was a real treat.

3. Finally, the big epiphany: some voiceover talents (not naming any names nor does this part reflect upon the aforementioned names) are crappy marketers.

Well, there goes all the new professional goodwill I just engendered from the Voice Off. But I feel if I address the issue, folks can learn from it. And folks, I witnessed all this first hand.

Lesson 1 – If you do not have your own voice over web site, I consider you a voice over wanna-be. Ouch, harsh! “But I have a page on voices.com and voice 123,” you say. Good, that’s right, direct your prospective client to your page there and hope and pray they don’t start fishing around the other talent pages on those sites (some of whom will do a 10 minute narration for $5 and a cup of day old coffee, just to get experience). Bad odds. Spend the money, get your own web page (or full site) and create a brand. Stop whining about money and do it!

Lesson 2 – Telephone numbers are not optional. Maybe you have a studio in your home and you don’t want clients calling your house and having your 10 year old answering the phone and, while sounding cute, still sounding unprofessional and I get that. Get a cell phone number, make that your business line, plaster the phone number everywhere and always answer it professionally. But get a phone number. Here’s your slogan – “The Telephone – its how business gets done!”

Lesson 3 – An email signature block is mandatory. Typing “Joe” or whatever at the bottom of an email doesn’t cut it. Every email you send out is an electronic business card. People may have kept your email just to have your contact information…unless of course you DON’T have it on there and then your important email really becomes expendable. An email signature block, which you can set up on most software to go out with every email automatically (so you really have no excuse) should contain at minimum your name, your company name, your phone number and your web site where folks can find your demos.

There are only two people now who know of your errors, you and me. And as you can see, I’m not using any names in the crappy marketers section. So quietly go about fixing these changes and go make some money. Nobody else will know how you did it cause I’m not telling.

Tags: commentary, fauxdition, internet, marketing, NBC Nightly News, social networking, unofficial audition, voice actors, voice talent, voiceover, voiceover advice, voiceover blog by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
3 Comments »

There are more times than I care to count in recent years where I realize I have become my parents.

That’s not a bad thing as my parents were wonderful people to whom I owe everything. But “parents” often make references that to a younger generation seem “historical”. Like “oh Dad, that happened so long ago!” even though it was only 20 years ago.

For some of you, even in the voice over or on-camera talent business, the “so long ago” comment may apply to my observation here.

Recently, actor Dick Wilson died at the age of 91. Many people knew Dick Wilson (I did not) but many millions more (myself included) knew his character Mr. Whipple, the grocery store manager who implored the ladies in the toilet tissue aisle “Please don’t squeeze the Charmin.”

Mr. Whipple sold a lot of toilet tissue.

As many commercial performers know, a good run for a spot may last 6 months to a year. Dick performed as Mr. Whipple for Proctor and Gamble for decades.

P&G created a product, Dick Wilson created an icon.

P&G gets my vote for getting it “right” with the commercial now running for Charmin.

May we all perform so well that our employers recognize us thusly:

Tags: advertising, commentary, commercials, marketing, tv, voice actors, voice talent, voiceover advice by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
Comments Off on one marketer gets it right

For the past few weeks I have been working on the 2008 marketing plan for my voiceover company. Business volume was good in 2007 but I want it better in ’08 and to do that I have to focus with greater intensity on a solid plan for 2008 that also responsibly manages marketing expenses.

So I set a goal for myself to plan out the year, review budgets and press on. This goal also requires consistent review and updates by me and I expect to do that. So I am pleased to share this achievement of my goal with you.

What prompted me to do so was a blog post today by my voiceover colleague Tim McLaughlin. He shared a story about his successful goal setting in 2007 and how it improved his performance (awesome!). He’s right about the goal…but in my opinion, that’s only half the story.

A business or an individual has less chance to achieve a goal without a written plan to get there. If I set a revenue objective, for example, how am I supposed to achieve it? I need (and you need) a marketing plan. How you format the plan should be based on what works for you…you have to live it so set it up anyway you like.

Mine breaks down the year by quarter, by month and by week. Slightly anal, you say? Maybe, but it’s a format that works for me, especially when you have to plan out execution elements like design, printing, production etc. A direct mail campaign might be scheduled to drop on March 1st but you’d better start the production process about 45-60 days earlier if you have a March 1st goal. Your printer has other clients he has to serve, you know!

So my advice is to set goals absolutely, but write and live the plan to get there too.

Tags: advertising, blogs, commentary, marketing, voiceover, voiceover advice by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
5 Comments »

I have no idea who this blog’s author is and what the overall content of the blog is about and I am certainly late to the party in finding the post but I do like the way he thinks about logo redesign.

Tags: advertising, commentary, logo design, marketing by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
1 Comment »

The question has been buzzing around my brain because I wonder if I am writing too many words? Should I edit my posts more for length? These folks say maybe.

Editing is not a bad thing.

Are readers put off by long posts? Is just the shape and the length of the post enough to make somebody want to click off (and is “click off” a new kind of social media vulgarity that I just ignorantly/innocently spewed forth? Hope not, if yes, sorry.)

I have a short attention span sometimes, so does that mean that all content has to be boiled down to 10-20 words to be read, let alone understood by most readers?

Is there too much rambling in my posts? Am I writing with the voice inside my head, a voice which many readers (regardless of my demos) have never heard when maybe I should be writing with a more informational style, like a journalist?

Blogs serve a myriad of purposes: creative and emotional outlet, search engine optimization tool, community builder, credibility enhancer and on and on.

I want to build the on-line presence for audio’connell Voice Over Talent and SEO-wise, this blog is one tool that helps that happen. It’s also good that I have a great deal of experience and a great many contacts in the fields of voiceover, marketing and advertising so that I have many resources and topics about which I can write and podcast about.

And I think the posts are interesting (including the posts that have nothing to do with the above).

So while I write about topics that I think will be of interest to my friends (known and unknown) in those industries, I guess if I am honest, I am writing for me.

Well, and you, because you and I are really the only two people who read this stuff. And thanks for that 🙂

Let me know what you think (and I am not fishing for compliments either, just taking the reader’s “pulse”, if you will).

Tags: advertising, blogs, commentary, internet, marketing, podcast, voiceover by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
11 Comments »