May 28, 2008 —UNICEF is making inroads with the Myanmar (Burma) government to provide aid for millions still affected by the cyclone that destroyed parts of that country.

With updated statistics and a list of pressing problems for relief workers trying to aid children in the region, audio’connell Voice Over Talent has updated its :30 second public service announcement (PSA) for universal use. The PSA requests donations for UNICEF’s relief effort in Myanmar.

Our original posts regarding UNICEF fund raising efforts in Myanmar can be found here.

Please make known this PSA update to any broadcast, cable or internet contact you have. They may use the PSA as produced or use the script to produce their own PSA.

The story may not be leading the news broadcasts today but the terrible conditions for the children in the country are no less severe.

Thank you for any help you can offer.

THIRTY SECOND UNICEF MYANMAR APPEAL PSA (May 28, 2008)
[audio:http://www.audioconnell.com/clientuploads/mp3/UNICEF_MyanmarPSA_30_May_28_2008.mp3]
Click (or right click)here to download the the :30 PSA!
Click (or right click)here to download the the PSA script!

Tags: commentary, commercials, public service announcement, radio, tv, UNICEF // 1 Comment »

I did not post the flyer featured in the graphic (double click on the picture to read it) but I have walked past it and read it in a public hallway for months now. Many people pass by this flyer and I have seen many people read it.

I have no beef with the company in the flyer (I only have gas fireplaces), I have no idea the full circumstances of the business relationship nor who posted it so I’m not going to feature the company name or phone number.

But my guess is I probably would allow my fingers to continue to do the walking through the yellow pages after I came across the omitted company’s name.

Bad customer service is always a bad idea. Not taking responsibility for your product is a worse idea. Having the world know you curse out your customers is probably the worst idea of all.

Turns out guerilla marketing works for customers too.

Do you think this is fair on the customer’s part or do you think this is unfair to the company being singled out?

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Tags: commentary, marketing // 2 Comments »

At this time of year, between graduations and wedding and celebrations of all kinds, there is a ton of advice being tossed around (mostly in speeches and quiet one-off conversations). Everybody has good intentions with their advice generally and it’s out there for the picking.

Voice over coaching is the same way. You need advice, I’ve got experience so let’s sit for a spell and visit. There are a ton of coaches in the VO world most of them far more talented at it than I am. With Voice Over Workshop, that’s what I advise my students from the start. I’ll share with you what I know on whatever relevant voice over topic they want.

Its more about conversation with a few soliloquies thrown in that seems to have a greater impact and longer lasting results for my students. They seem to have genuinely learned something by the end of each session and are certainly motivated.

That makes me happy on two counts:
1. I’m helping people learn more in an area they I have great experience in while watching them bloom in the pursuit of their voice over dream.

2. I’m getting paid for what was for too long offered as free, really helpful advice.

Everybody learns differently. Certain phrases or words or visuals are processed in a unique way by all of us. But too often I notice some students trying to absorb every morsel of what I say and make all of the examples I offer applicable to them as individuals. I think it’s due to their desire to be a successful voice artist “yesterday”!

I’ve been in learning situations where I react the same way, and I remind myself I need to settle my brain down a bit and just listen.

While students may want wrap their craniums around my 25 years in voice over, media production and business into a few 2 hour sessions, even they realize it can’t happen once I point it out to them. Better, I tell them, to “take what works and discard the rest.”

I advise them to let their brains find some offered nugget(s) that is really and immediately applicable to their career today. They’ll find information I offered that will stick like cement and really help them in their VO quest. The other stuff, well, we’ll file that in the recesses of their brain for later. It works. When students accept it, you can see their faces relax and the learning begin. And that is a great gift for both of us.

Take what works and discard the rest. It’s not just for voice over training.

It’s a powerful phrase (not originated by me). It’s an impactful way of learning. It’s a wonderful way to achieve physical, mental and spiritual balance in life.

Letting ourselves do it? Well, that’s what takes practice.

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Tags: commentary, peter o'connell, voice actors, voice over workshop, voice talent, voiceover, voiceover advice // Comments Off on use what works and discard the rest

My congratulations to Grace Moon of Canyon Middle School in Castro Valley, California whose artistic design (above) beat out over 16,000 entries from K-12 students in the Doodle for Google contest.

I’ve voted in the contest so I can tell you from the entries I saw that the world has a ton of great artists in our schools. Let’s keep educating and encouraging all of them.

Congratulations Grace!

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Tags: commentary, google, internet, logo design // 1 Comment »

This is a brilliant idea and it must get props.

Brian Clark over at Copyblogger has this awesome idea: tell a short story on Twitter in exactly 140 characters.

What?

Anyone who Tweets (posts) on Twitter only has 140 characters in which to get a thought across. Brian’s idea is to tell a short (140 character) story on Twitter. That includes punctuation, spacing, everything. Oh and it has to be intresting and engaging.

Here’s an example from Brian whose great idea will send lots of traffic to his great web site:

Three flies are bugging me on the deck. I kill two, and spare the third. “Go tell the others this is what happens,” I warn as he buzzes off.

Brian is giving away a prize of some sort for the winner but that doesn’t matter as the real prize is in the doing! You win simply by creatively expressing yourself in 140 characters.

You can read my entry here.

If you enter, after you post on Twitter and on Copyblogger, would you please post a link to your entry in the comment box here? We all want to read your prose.

Come on, it’ll be seconds and seconds of fun! You gotta try!

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Tags: commentary, internet, marketing, silliness, social media // 2 Comments »

It’s early Saturday evening and I sit in BWI awaiting my return flight to Buffalo following my niece Molly’s graduation from Loyola of Baltimore. She was about 2 ½ months old when she attended my graduation from the University of Dayton. I can clearly picture her in the stands. Today our roles were reversed and so much has changed over 20 years. Too much.

Some good things, some bad. And regrets. What I assume are standard yet inescapable regrets. Sinatra was wrong.

You have a lot of time to think during a graduation when there is a class of thousands graduating and you’re only there to see one person. I’m so proud of her and her siblings and all they’ve accomplished thus far…with so much yet to come for them, hopefully mostly good.

I will watch my children graduate in another twenty years or so and I need to make that time count. I don’t know what that means or how to articulate it or even, if I’m honest, how to do it but in parenting as in life we’re all making it up as we go along anyway. Check back with me them to see how I did.

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Tags: commentary // 2 Comments »