I know the Smartest Man in the World and his name is Saul Colt. I know he is the Smartest Man in the World because he had a business card that said he was.

Well, that was good enough for me.

I met him about a year ago at a Geek Dinner in Toronto along with Eden Spodek (she of Podcamp Toronto 2008 fame, among her many credits) and we had a very enjoyable time. I follow them both on Twitter and I subscribe to Saul’s blog.

Today Saul had a blog post about a bad experience he had at a movie theatre over the weekend when he went to see Iron Man (which is getting some great buzz). He posted about everything except the name of the movie chain that was responsible (note that) for the problem and dealt with it ineffectually (note that too).

I posted a response as such to the post (though I respect his choice and it is his to make) and noted that blogs are the new complaint letter. Why?

We end users (are we “customers” any more in the digital age?) can spend hours pouring over just the right prose to convey our anger, displeasure and frustration over a problem we encountered from a company and couldn’t properly get resolved. We send it off, throwing our letter in to the mail box or pressing our email “send” key with just the right touch of righteous indignation, knowing we’ll get our desired outcome.

We don’t, usually.

While many companies have a complaint department and some may actually resolve an issue satisfactorily, in my experience many more companies don’t have a complaint or customer service department as much as they have a form letter or pleasant but helpless voice department.

An example. This past Thanksgiving Day, I flew AirTran Airlines to Atlanta…a direct flight from Buffalo. I took the 6:45 a.m. flight so I could get down there to enjoy that day and next few days with my family.

I won’t bore you with the details (certainly AirTran didn’t care) but because they failed to safely maintain the plane I flew, I left Buffalo at 2:00 p.m. and got to my destination at 4:00 p.m. Their response from start to finish was poor, even after I wrote them multiple, spiffy complaint letters. I got a form back. It’s the second time AirTran has screwed me. I avoid that airline whenever possible and flinch when I have to fly them.

There are many schools of thought about outing companies on blogs or complaining about customer service – ranging from effectiveness or usefulness to how it reflects on the blogger (am I now just a big whiner?) Well, if I am seen as a patient man who sometimes gets ticked off on occasion when someone or some organization treats me poorly, I’m OK with that. Otherwise, people haven’t done their due diligence on me

Maybe the company I’m frustrated by could be my customer some day, huh? No they won’t, no matter who the “they” are.

My company has a simple code of conduct that we’ve always operated under but only recently published. If I know from personal experience that a company can’t do what it says it can do, I won’t work on the account. Yes, I have turned down work on such accounts before.

They can screw up their brand all they want but they’re not going to infect my brand (me, my voices, my company) with their poison.

The other side of it is that if we (you, me, whomever) are always complaining on our blog, no one will read the blogs and we will be ignored…by the company, by subscribers etc. That makes sense which is why I don’t complain on blogs a ton. We also become “the boy who cried wolf”.

But if we all don’t step up occasionally (when the situation calls for it…see earlier “notes”), companies – clearly already lazy in their customer service departments – will get even lazier and the downward service spiral will accelerate. Then we will have no one but ourselves to blame.

Please feel free to disagree in the complaint box below 😉

On the upside, let’s not be shy about singing the praises of companies that wow us either!

Thanks for reading.

If you really like this post (of course we hope you do), please feel free to bookmark and or promote it by clicking the buttons below on your preferred services.

Tags: blogs, commentary, social media, social networking, technology, voiceover blog // 4 Comments »

Voice over actor and teacher Pat Fraley teaches his seminars around the country when he’s not working on a voice project in LA. If you’ve been in voice over for anytime, you’ve likely heard of Fraley’s classes and how wildly popular they are.

Well there’s a wonderful, well-known voice actress and teacher in Western New York named Toni Silveri who has worked with and been friends with Pat for many years. That friendship coupled with their mutual professional respect and the Buffalo Niagara region’s storied broadcasting/voice over history has encouraged Pat to visit Buffalo numerous times with his wonderful always sold out classes.

This summer, Pat Fraley is coming to Buffalo again. Saturday, August 16th and Sunday, August 17th, 2008, Fraley will be presenting a two day workshop on The Silly, The Serious and The Subtle.

Download the Fraley Voice Class brochure here.

The classes will allow voice talents to hone their skills at creating and delivering character voice performances for the specific demands of the top three mediums: animation, interactive gaming and audio books (audio books will actually get a full day master class available only to VO professionals).

Class sizes are limited and are already filling up fast so contact Toni via email: tonisilveri at g mail dot com (figure it out).

Full disclosure: Toni is my voice coach and one of my agents (All Coast Talent is one of the few agencies that actually works at getting voice talents work). I have also studied with Pat before.

I am attending his August session and paying full boat because I know what a great teaching environment Toni establishes and what a great teacher Pat is. I have no stake in this presentation whatsoever except as a repeat student.

If you are a voice talent in Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Fort Erie, St. Catherines, Toronto, Pittsburgh, Erie, Bradford, Cleveland and all points in between, I suggest you reserve one of the very limited spots for this voice talent training weekend.

If you miss because you’re slow to respond then shame on you. Get in touch with Toni today.

Thanks for reading.

If you haven’t already, we’d be honored if you subscribe to voxmarketising – the audio’connell blog and podcast by clicking the “subscribe” button on this blog. Also check out this cheap gaming PC build from the folks at BuildPC.

If you really like this post (of course we hope you do), please feel free to bookmark and or promote it by clicking the buttons below on your preferred services.

Tags: animation, audio books, character voices, commentary, narrations, peter o'connell, voice actors, voice talent, voiceover, voiceover advice // 3 Comments »

In my voice over business, I do more commercial and narration work that radio imaging work (serving as the radio station’s voice for ID’s, promos, contests etc.). Some of the production work I do for radio stations is strictly producing because they have a voice under contract. Usually these are smaller stations that may not have a full time production director or just want to avail themselves of my mad production skillz, yo, yo!

Proving timing is everything in life, I happened to have just updated my radio imaging demos for both voice and production. It had been over a year and a half since I laid hands on the demos and while there was nothing wrong with them, I think it’s good to freshen things up with newer material…after 18 months!!!! My thanks to my anonymous mentor for providing his aural guidance again; he helped make the demos sing!

But I was thinking in the back of my head as I’m doing this updating about the sameness of ALL imaging demos. Certainly there is the uniqueness of each voice talent’s money voice and the value that brings to painting a picture on the set of the theatre of the mind. The additional flavoring and spices that are included with radio imaging, however, (editing, EFX, drops etc) seem to be blending in to a cacophony of sameness.

As this (also timely) article noted from KROQ Production Director Trevor Shand, I’m not the only one who has noticed this.

You can go into almost any radio market in America and be sure to hear 3-4 of the same imaging voices everywhere. Let’s be clear, I do not resent for one minute any of these wonderful voice talents’ right to make a living and ride the wave of success. They have worked hard and more power to them.

Taken from a big picture perspective, almost the art of radio imaging, the same voices, the same effects, the same drops makes it all sound blah. I understand it is all so formulaic because one VP is issuing orders to use a voice talent because we get a corporate discount or because if it worked in Peoria it will work in Des Moines. And hey, if the customer asks me to make their station sound like the Des Moines station, that’s what I will do.

Neither I nor Trevor Shand are trying to bite the hands that feed us, certainly I’m not. I am offering up a request for program directors to try and create for their stations a slightly different sound in their imaging (no matter who they use as their voice). PD’s are the brains of the operation so they have to decide on the palette and texture. But as the hands (and/or vocal chords) of the guy whose putting the right paint colors on the proper numbers, I stand ready to try and craft something unique for the imaging sound of your station.

And I bet there are a few hundred other imaging producers chomping at the bit to do the same.

Am I right or am I way off base here? Please share any thoughts you have on the topic.

Thanks for reading.

If you really like this post (of course we hope you do), please feel free to bookmark and or promote it by clicking the buttons below on your preferred services.

Tags: commentary, radio, voice talent, voiceover // Comments Off on the continuing sameness of radio imaging

My thanks to everyone who voted, who advised, who hated and who opined. I appreciated all of it at its universal root: the desire to help me when I asked.

You can see it all in use here.

Whether we are friends virtually or on terra firma…we are friends.

Thank you.

Thanks for reading.

If you really like this post (of course we hope you do), please feel free to bookmark and or promote it by clicking the buttons below on your preferred services.

Tags: advertising, audio'connell voice over talent, blogs, commentary, international voice talents, internet, logo design, marketing, social media, social networking, voice casting, voice talent, voiceover, voiceover advice, voiceover blog // 3 Comments »

If you’re running a newspaper or working for one, there have been many times in your career where you’ve felt your job may be threatened.

The two biggies, it would seem to me, would be when television became popular and then in more recent times with the advent of the internet. If I’d worked on a printing press for any amount of time, I think I would have had or be experiencing some sleepless nights when considering the impact of those two communication channels.

And if you are graduating as a journalism student this spring, I’m guessing you also set yourself up with a pretty strong minor in case the writing and reporting thing doesn’t work out.

To wit: the editors of the trade magazine Editor and Publisher report the following major newspapers all lost circulation in daily and Sunday subscriptions: The Washington Post, New York Post, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle and Boston Globe. Of the top 25 newspapers only the Wall Street Journal and USA Today gained daily circulation.

My uneducated guess would be that paid advertising in those papes might also be down as well.

We all still crave content but as consumers we seem to be caring less about packaging, more about convenience and still more about the delivery system. And oh yes, free is still better than not free. The internet is free. Paid internet subscriptions to news sites has pretty much failed as a business model with certain business publications like the Wall Street Journal being a notable exception. Even the New York Times is now free on line (it’s one of the best web layouts and I subscribe to it, for free).

In spite of the proliferation of gossip as news, most adults still want news…we want to know what’s going on in our cities and states and our nation. We have families to raise, homes to protect, knowledge to gain and print media plays a big role in collecting and sharing that information. They’ve just been slow in updating their delivery system from paper to electronic.

That switch is a game changer for the financially troubled newspaper industry. Some jobs will no longer be needed (pressmen, delivery truck drivers) and new jobs will be created (web programmers etc). All thru the change, these publishers are still responsible for getting the news out. Aren’t you glad you don’t have their business problems?

But we have a responsibility too, as news consumers. We are adapting and forcing the new delivery system of our news but we’re also blurring the news content lines.

What is news? Is your news the same as my news. If it’s not, how is a publisher to know what to publish and who to publish for? With the web, we can be very specific about what each of us decides is real news.

That’s a problem because we’re not all terribly judicious in our selections. According to a quick search today on Alexa.com, globally the top print-based news site on the web is the New York Times…coming in at #97! It was beat out by a ton of Google sites, You Tube, CNN, porn sites and ESPN.

We need to check (or install) our personal news filters (internal and external) to make sure we’re not keeping out hard news by focusing only soft topics we like (hobby sites, gossip etc). The internet and its tool can seduce us into stupidity if we let it (just as TV can and has). We WILL dumb ourselves down to the point of submission if we completely embrace our freedom of choice in news gathering to only the stuff that doesn’t trouble us.

We need to know some stuff we’d rather not know about (wars, crime, finance) too.

Thanks for reading.

If you really like this post (of course we hope you do), please feel free to bookmark and or promote it by clicking the buttons below on your preferred services.

Tags: advertising, commentary, internet, media, technology // Comments Off on print isn’t dead, it’s just not as papery

As audio’connell Voice Over Talent has opened its division, International Voice Talents (which strangely enough offers professional voiceover services from…international…voice…talents, get it?) we needed to kick up the branding a bit.

Its logo time.

The goal of this logo design was to mimic some international signs with their abstract iconography; the good news was that many of those signs use the colors red, white and black as does audio’connell Voice Over Talent and Voice Over Workshop (see, we were destined to do this international voice thing!)

Place your vote below in the comment section including whether you’re picking the logo you love or the best of the worst. Voting is open to anyone so tell your friends…but hey, vote only once please.

Certainly branding is hard work but nobody said it couldn’t be fun!

(Click on icon for full view)
CHOICE A

CHOICE B

CHOICE C

Thanks for reading.

If you really like this post (of course we hope you do), please feel free to bookmark and or promote it by clicking the buttons below on your preferred services.

Tags: audio'connell voice over talent, commentary, international voice talents, logo design, marketing, social media, voice over workshop, voiceover advice // 53 Comments »