The Best Ways To Choose Your Voice Over Talent

One of the most important choices you will make when opting to create an audio or video advertisement is choosing the literal voice of your brand. But, how do you find the right voice over artist? This is often one of the most exciting parts of the project, and that’s what we’re here to help with.

This choice is vital, as how your advert will be interpreted by your audience will be determined by your voice over artist and how they effectively represent your brand.

Before you inquire about voice over services, here are some top tips to help choose the right voice over talent for your series, advertising campaign or video game.

Ask How You Want Your Brand Represented

Before you begin the process of scouting talent, make yourself a list of the emotions that best describe your brand. For a bed company for example the emotions you might want are comfort and relaxation. For a dance music record label you may want youth and excitement.

Make a shortlist of the emotions that sit at the core of your brand and look for voices that best capture those emotions.

Cast A Wide Net

Conventional wisdom has it that you choose a voice-over artist of the same gender as your target audience. However, an Adweek poll found that female and male voices were found to be relatively similarly received when it came to authoritativeness and soothing.

Audition as many unique voices as possible which match your brand’s requirements, as this is the best way to find the perfect voice actor.

Consider Your Audience

The ideal tone, tempo and intonation of a voice-over artist will differ tremendously depending on the audience you are trying to appeal to. Typically younger audiences want an audience that is more uptempo and expressive, whilst an older audience tends to prefer a deeper intonation.

This is a more important choice than you may think, as choosing the wrong voice for your brand may distance it from your audience. For example, there is a reason why Werther’s Original sweets have a particularly deep, often gravelly voice-over to convey a warm traditional feel.

Consider Storytellers And Presenters

There are so many types of voice-over artist, but typically there are two main types that people consider for campaigns.

Presenters are more traditionally used in adverts and carry an enthusiastic voice that makes them ideal salespeople, which is beneficial if you are conveying basic information or primarily focused on selling your product.

Good examples of these include pitchmen such as Billy Mays, Barry Scott and other voices you hear on “As Seen On TV” adverts.

On the other hand, if you are telling a story with your advert, you will need a voice over artist who can express particular emotions and create drama with their voice. A good storyteller can be seen in not just advertising, but also work as effective story narrators.

If you have written your advert primarily to tell a story, you are likely to have a particular voice in mind that can carry the emotions you need to make the advert work.