Archive for the ‘Advertising’ Category
Better Times Ahead for the Commercial Voice Actor?
A couple of the leading on-line radio trade magazines are quoting a report from SNL Kagan that predicts “bounce-back” growth in ad revenues for the U.S. broadcast industry this year. This can only be good news for the voice actor who’s genre of work includes commercials and promos. From All Access:
SNL KAGAN has some good [...]
June 15, 2010
Posted in: Advertising, General 
No Comments
Darth Vader Voices Your Tom Tom
Driving around with my GPS, I ignore the voice commands often, triggering the “re-calculating” comment from the female voice so many times I half expect her to reach out of the device and give me a good smack upside the head. I wonder if I would ignore Darth Vader’s commands so flippantly. You can get [...]
May 4, 2010
Posted in: Advertising, General, Video No Comments
Big Bowl of Superbowl Ads
Advertising trade publication Ad Age has a big list of this year’s Superbowl spots.
February 8, 2010
Posted in: Advertising, Marketing 2 Comments
In Search of The Next Billy Mays
Tangentially related to voice over, the call has gone out to find a replacement for hyper-pitchman Billy Mays who unexpectedly passed away in 2009. The joke around our house was that when one of Mr. Mays’ TV spots came on, you could hit “mute” on the remote and still hear him.
Trade publication Advertising Age was [...]
January 25, 2010
Posted in: Advertising, Auditions, General No Comments
Que the Announcer
A point of direction we see a lot in the voice over audition process is “no announcer” or “stay away from announcer sound” or “need real, genuine, no announcer” and 67 variations thereof. Why?
My voice-over coach has a theory: The classic announcer sound from the 50’s-70’s is representative of the generation of admen who lied [...]
January 11, 2010
Posted in: Advertising, Coaching, General No Comments
JC Penney Doghouse Part Deux
JC Penney is a locally based company that at one time ran a first class production facility where I had the pleasure of voicing non-broadcast projects for them. In fact it was one training piece I worked on for them where I learned just how long I could read before my voice started giving out.
Anyway, [...]
November 25, 2009
Posted in: Advertising, Branding, General No Comments
What is the Context?
Been thinking about the word “context” this morning. It’s one of the lenses through which we should see the script as we prepare for the job or an audition. It helps us determine choices.
I think language scholar Oscar E. Nybakken has a very useful take on the word “context” for the voice actor:
Context not [...]
September 14, 2009
Posted in: Advertising, Auditions, General, Techniques No Comments
New Area of Work for the Voice Actor?
The merging and melding of media marches on. Now we have video embedded in print ads. What does this mean for the voice actor? It can’t be bad, methinks.
September 2, 2009
Posted in: Advertising, General, Video No Comments
What are the 7 Words You Can’t Say in Advertising?
Copywriter Steve Simpson has an amusing column in Adweek that speaks to the new guidelines for the advertising scribe. I might have used the word “funny” to describe the column, but “funny” may not be an appropriate word choice during these difficult economic times. So infers the ” Bureau of the New Era of Responsibility, [...]
April 1, 2009
Posted in: Advertising No Comments
Local Shop Gets Reception Area Bling
Here’s a hat tip to the creatives over at TM Advertising in Dallas. Jim Walker mentions on their blog that the shop has garnered a fist full of Addy’s, which are kind of the Grammy’s of advertising.
The awards include radio work for Nationwide Insurance. Congratulations to Hal, Dermot, Stephanie at TM, and also [...]
February 10, 2009
Tags: Addy's, radio Posted in: Advertising, Awards, General No Comments
