The use of Voice Over in your Cable Advertising
Why should we consider Voice Over in our Cable Ad Campaign?
This is my favorite subject and I relish the opportunity to discuss it whenever speaking to the client. From the cost basis to the branding, the use of voice over "keeps the door open" on the message you want to deliver.
Beginning at the production stage of your ad it is important to "film baby film"... you can never have enough footage of the product you are presenting. Having an adequate supply and variety will allow for significant cost savings on future production and it gives you a "bank" of clips that can be edited into many different versions and ads. The use of voice over instead of performer audio will allow you to "change the message" of your ad with far greater speed and effect. In a changing market in may be necessary to have a changing message to keep up and surpass the competition.
The visual aspect should become your "brand" and the voice over drives the message home. For the small to medium business advertising on a local or regional cable program, it is essential to get the most "bang for the buck" and the use of voice over talent makes it possible. With the technology of today the production company can access thousands of voice actors with a few simple clicks of the mouse. The voice talent can be sorted by age, accent, gender, and character thus narrowing the field in seconds. The producer can upload a sample script and within hours voice talent from across the country are submitting their auditions for your ad.
As you can see the filming is the most time consuming and costly element in your ad. In today's market, it is even more vital to keep your advertising out there and try to get a bigger piece of a smaller pie than we had 5 years ago. The use of voice over talent will keep your advertising budget under control and allow you to deliver a quality product.
I have experience with John Baer from Synergy Advertising who produced the clip above, several cable ads for myself and local businesses, and several cable TV shows. Watching him work and witnessing the reward quality cable advertising produced, has brought me to where I am today. This is a link to their web site.