Entries Tagged as 'voiceover'

your voice over business may owe the supreme court a thank you note

audioconnell_election_ballot3

This is a political post but not in a Democrat or Republican kind of way.

You may have seen in the news last week as an “also in the news” feature after the Haiti and NBC late night imbroglio, that the Supreme Court issued a ruling that loosened restrictions on corporate campaign spending.

As viewers and listeners, this means more political campaign ads – soft, hard and/or nasty – but upwards in some estimates of $300,000,000 more in political ad spending in the next political cycle.

Whether or not you like that as a citizen or politico matters less to me that what that ruling means to me as a voice over talent of political spots for radio and TV. If you wanted to, say, only cut me in for .5% of that total in voice over work – I’d probably consider it.

Some voice talents don’t like to do political spots and some, like me, study the client/candidate for their stand on one or two issues of high importance and if he/she doesn’t match up, you pass on the spot.

So if you’re of a mind to, you might want to dust off your political commercial voice over demo and maybe think about updating it if you haven’t in a while. It looks like it’s gong to get politically busy pretty soon.

one last word on Justin from Justin

<em> Justin Kaiser, 1977-2010</em>

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.

evidently, everyone else on the planet said “no”

audioconnell_voice2010_sm10

John Florian is usually a pretty savvy, smart guy. But I think he may have lost his mind. Either that or absolutely everyone else on the planet said no.

John pinged me last week to invite me to be on a panel he is moderating at VOICE 2010, June 2-5 in LaLa Land.

I am to speak eloquently on how I use the internet for my voice over career and for my companies: audio’connell Voice Over Talent, International Voice Talent and Voice Over Workshop. If he wants eloquence, I hope he has a script for me.

Trish Basanyi (who I had the pleasure of meeting at the NYC Voice Over Mixer) will be on the panel with me along with David Kaplan.

Our plan as panelists, I have decided here without consulting either Trish or David, will be to have a pre-meeting confab with John and us at the most expensive, trendy, posh restaurant in LA (on John’s dime of course, he’s rollin’ in it).

This way, when I open my mouth to speak at the conference and the audience realizes I have nothing to say and my voice over career promptly ends of the spot, I will at least have had one last good meal.

requiescat in pace justin kaiser

<em>Justin Kaiser</em>

Justin Kaiser

Some sad news for voice over and social media folks.

You may or may not have had the chance to interact with voice talent Justin Kaiser. I did, on-line, and he was a very pleasant guy with talents in a multiple of disciplines: voice over, social media, marketing.

I was terribly saddened to read on the VO-BB early this morning that Justin had died. While I am unable to find an obituary to link to at the moment, there is some info on the VO-BB link above. The WGFA radio web site (where Justin was Operations Manager and Morning Show host) indicated at the time of the post that Justin was suffering from complications following surgery around Christmas time.

While I am unsure how long his family will keep up his web sites, for the time being I think all you need to know about Justin and his family is found in this video that Justin recorded as he and his wife Diana hopefully mailed their adoption paperwork. Watch, listen and remember with a smile.

P.S. Here is a link the WGFA Radio fan page on Facebook, where you can also leave a message. We’re not bound by zip codes anymore.

is bob souer a voice over god?

<em> Male Voice Talent Bob Souer</em>

Male Voice Talent Bob Souer

No but he plays Him in an audiobook. (Ba-dum-bump!)

About four years ago my friend, fellow traveler and sometimes dining companion Bob Souer was booked to narrate entire Bible in the “New King James” version.

Let me repeat: the entire Bible – all 700,000 plus words of it. It’s now been released.

Personally, I’ve always felt there was a bit of divine intervention in the booking because you’ll not find a more kind, Christian man with greater voice over talent than Bob.

If you or someone in your family enjoys absorbing Scripture, this would be an awesome gift, written by some awesome people and presented by an awesome guy.

extra, extra, voice over xtra!

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I hope I’ve written something like this before about the voice over industries preeminent e-zine, Voice Over Xtra! but if not, here it is: you darn well better be a subscriber if you are in this industry.

Should you needed any more convincing, look no further than the post its editor and my friend John Florian put up yesterday. He got voice over talent Jennifer Vaughn to write a fascinating article that financially analyzes and compares her 2009 efforts auditioning and securing business on both Voices.com and Voice 123.

As the voice over industry’s two primary pay-to-play sites who together have changed the landscape on how clients and talent get new voice over business (the argument about whether for better or worse will be held over for another time) this is really a great comparison and a startlingly honest report by Vaughn.

Thanks Jennifer for that and thanks John for everything.