Are You Sure You Booked The Right Voice?

With over 100 World Class talents (many with planet-wide credits) on our website it can be a little overwhelming.  We understand that and have made choosing the right voice easy. Don't just pick the first or second voice you hear as that may be the wrong voice for your project.

First... Know your clients target audience & demographics.  If it is not you than we suggest the account executive working with your client puts together a check list.  This will help avoid setting your client up for advertising failure. All voice talents have a comfort range. Not all voice talents can do hard sells or seductive style reads. This is why we feature 100+ World Class talents. We have all the bases covered for you.

Second... Be creative and unique with the copy.  While most businesses have similar goals and missions, every business has something unique. Build on that uniqueness to appeal to your clients target audience. Because your client is not in the advertising business like we are don't let your client write the script.  The copy needs to feature the important aspects of their business and a trained copywriter will be able to capture the facts, emotion, call to action, and / or the over all direction for the commercial to be successful.  Whether it's a television spot or radio spot, you only get one chance to grab the attention of the audience and entice them with the creative.

Third... By now you have invested time and hopefully a plan of action. Now it's time to get the right voice that will compliment the spot and relate to the target audience.  Planet Charley Productions has a big variety of award winning World Class talents and each one of our voice pros are unique.  Instead of just grabbing the first or second demo you played, read the talents description next to their name.  Better yet use our talent style search feature to help save you time.  Type in an adjective or two and then listen to at least the first 3 or 4 clips in each talents demo.  You may be surprised how many of our voices sound completely different with a clip in the middle of their demo than at the beginning.  If you use a word that doesn't fine tune the talents that shine best in the word(s) you entered then try a similar word.  For example if you are looking for a car dealer style voice and get a limited selection to choose from then start over and type in automotive.  You can even break it down by gender (ie automotive female).

Our World Class talents have national and international credits.  There is a reason they were casted and booked for the national spots they voiced.  You don't think a clients ad agency listened to one or two voices and then just went with them, do you?  Therefore spend a few moments on our site reading the talent descriptions while playing the demos and use our search feature.  The voice talent in any commercial is the most important part of the spot.  It's the right voice that will captivate, motivate, relate, encourage, and or take the target audience and patronize your clients business.  If the client is happy it is a lot easier to up-sell and get additional buys.  Don't hesitate to contact us for help or a You Tube link to see how we can help you find the right voice.  Remember, the voice over talent is the story teller.  You just want to make sure you are using the best one for your client's message.

Get more tips from our blog found on our website.

 

10 Great Audio Tips

Tip 1: Edit Before You Start Mixing

The best way to approach a mix is if all the tracks are edited and sounding the best they can. If you dedicate a part of your session to editing your tracks the mixing aspect will be easier and more enjoyable.

Tip 2: Cut Out Any Background Noise Between Phrases

Go through all your tracks and listen to the silences between phrases.

Most of the time, especially with vocal tracks, the parts that look like silences in your DAW do have noise, very quiet breaths. And guess what happens when you add compression to those vocals? The noise floor goes up and now the noise is even more audible.

Tip 3: Use Fades Effectively

Sometimes, when you have a quiet backing track and suddenly you introduce more SFX / music to the mix, the volume change might sound abnormal. By using fades you can minimize the aural unexpectedness of adding more instruments to a mix.

Tip 4: Cut At the Zero Point

The zero point is the point in the waveform where the positive and negative side of a wave meet. This is where the volume of the wave is zero. By cutting here you can avoid clicks and pops in your audio.

Tip 5: Raise the Volume of Individual Phrases

If some phrases of a track sound much louder or quieter than the rest, rather than compressing the whole track to lower the dynamic range try raising or lowering the individual phrases. That way your compression will be more effective over the track as a whole.

Tip 6: Move Regions for Quick Fixes

If a phrase or two don’t sound completely in the pocket or a drum hit doesn’t come exactly on the beat, there is nothing wrong with a little digital magic and moving a phrase here or there if it’s just for quick fixes. But if you’re spending most of your time moving a complete bass track here or there usually you’re better off recording the whole part again.

Tip 7: Copy/Paste

The beauty of doing things in the digital domain is that you can copy and paste parts to other sections in the project.

It’s very easy and quick to try out new arrangements by copying and pasting.

Tip 8: Use A.D.T.

In a similar vein, using artificial double tracking to double a part is an easy part of editing. Just copy and paste a phrase and displace it a few milliseconds after the original.

Tip 9: Use Mutes

By cutting up regions into their respective intro, verse, chorus parts etc. you can create dynamics and anticipation throughout the recording.

Say you have a lonely vocal in the first verse, a doubled one in the chorus and then various harmonizations for the rest of the track. By muting some vocals and then introducing them sporadically you can create a type of suspense.

Tip 10: Get It Over With

Editing can be boring. But it’s worth it – get it over with. When you have clean tracks, devoid of background noise, fades that compliment your tracks and innovative arrangements by experimenting with regions you can clearly see how the benefits of editing reveal themselves. For professional and production without the headaches just have us produce your project.

 

Branding Your Client With Planet Charley Productions

What Is the Tone of Voice in Advertising?

To effectively develop a brand through marketing, you must build your brand's personality. An important part of brand personality is the tone of voice in advertising. The tone of voice in marketing means not only what your advertisements say about your brand, but how they say it.

 

Values  Because advertising tone of voice is meant to convey a brand's personality, a successful tone of the voice will clearly communicate the values of your client's brand. For example, if they are selling home improvement supplies, you may want their brand's tone of voice to communicate that their company is competent, knowledgeable and helpful. If you have a client selling clothing to teens, the tone of voice might suggest that their brand is fun and popular. Try our search feature with a few simple adjectives to help you find the perfect voice. The search feature is at the top of the front page and the World Class talent demo page.

Vocabulary, Grammar and Style

In both written and spoken advertising, the vocabulary, grammar and style you decide on will define the tone of the voice. For instance, a friendly tone of voice might use a warm style of speaking and informal language and grammar. A company that wants to project its brand as knowledgeable might use a detached or professional style, proper grammar and more formal language.

Consistency

Whatever tone of voice you want to represent your brand's personality, consistency is the single most important value in building it. Advertisements that deliver a consistent tone of voice build a believable brand personality that consumers feel they can trust. In contrast, advertisements that switch between contrasting tones of voice can create a sense of discomfort in consumers, just as unpredictable personalities can be alienating in real life. Planet Charley Productions has minimal talent turn over, allowing you to brand your client with the same voice time after time.

Variation

Although consistency in tone of the voice is crucial, it also is important to know when to vary your style within your client's brand established tone of voice. For example, while your advertisements uniformly project a fun tone of voice, advertisements aimed at children might use one set of vocabulary, while those aimed at adults use another. Similarly, different types of media require somewhat different styles. Planet Charley Productions works with several professional copywriters to help you achieve a script that is both effective and engaging to your audience. Contact us at www.PlanetCharley.com for copywriting rates & information.

Thinking about YOUR TV Commercial

 

Most companies look at television commercials as an advertising vehicle for "the other guy." The corporate giant. The big business with lots of disposable cash. In fact, TV is a very affordable medium that can increase your company's profits greatly.

Before you make an investment in television advertising, there are certain key elements you need to consider. Once you understand the process of writing, creating and producing a commercial, you're ready to hit the airwaves.

Effective TV commercials merge video and audio into a powerful sales tool. But don't think one is more important than the other. Audio and video go hand-in-hand.

 

Plan Out Your Video
Using a furniture store as an example, you may have ten different kinds of recliners, eight living room sets and six bedroom suits you want to feature. You're going to have to narrow those shots down because you simply can't get them all into a :30, :45 or even a one minute commercial without flashing so many different pieces of video on the screen that your potential customers will feel like they're in a lightning storm. Wide shots of your showroom are good to get a bunch of your furniture displayed at once and you can select a few items you want to be featured alone. It's crucial you not cram a bunch of video into the small amount of time you have for your commercial. Your video should tell the story about what you're advertising even if a customer has their volume turned down.

Writing the Script
Make sure your commercial's script times out to 30 seconds (or however long you have bought air time for). Use short sentences that grab your potential customer's attention. You've got a very limited time frame to capture your audience and you need to get your message across quickly. Don't get wrapped up in long sentences. Keep them short and punchy. Your audio should also tell the customer what you're advertising even if the customer is in another room and can't see the TV when your commercial airs.

Audio and Video Must Match
When writing your commercial, you must make sure your audio and video match. When you're talking about new car models arriving, you don't want to see video of the current year's make. When you're talking about your big showroom of furniture, you don't want to see the building from the street. You must merge your audio and video to create a powerful sales tool.

Never Forget Your Call to Action
Your call to action gets customers to buy or act now. Don't get to the end of your commercial and leave off your call to action. You want to tell customers to visit today and give your complete contact information, including Web site address and phone number.

Stick to Time
You've bought a :30 commercial package. As tempting as it might be to squeak in an extra few seconds, you just can't do it. Your commercial must time out to the exact time you've paid for. Going over will only get your all-to-important call to action clipped because those last few seconds will be cut off when your commercial airs.

Scheduling Your Commercial
Placement of your commercial is very important. It determines who will see your commercial and how much you will pay for its air time. Having your commercial air at 3 a.m. will save you money but if you don't reach your audience it's not money well spent. The same holds true for the Network you're airing your ad on as well. If you're advertising your maternity clothing store, you don't want schedule air time on ESPN.

Frequency
Television is less demanding on frequency than radio but it still deserves more than a one-shot deal. If you were advertising during the Super Bowl, that would be a completely different story. But to be effective, you need to identify the key times your ad should run and buy enough air time for your commercial to reach your audience at least 3-5 times per day. More times would be ideal.

Consistency
Use the same voice over talent, jingle, fonts, colors, etc. to keep your commercial consistent. This helps people start to get to know your company by all of these factors. It's called BRANDING and you should seek to use the same themes in all your advertising venues and medias.

Our World Class talents vs Union talents

Don't sacrifice the quality for value. Listen to our seasoned World Class talents (www.PlanetCharley.com) and you will hear our pros can match union talent with professionalism hands down. Plus you get the Planet Charley advantage: super f

ast turn around, superior customer service, and all World Class talents are the same rate.

With the union rates (you the client) must pay the talent scale and residuals and contribute to a pension and welfare fund on your behalf.

With Planet Charley Productions (you the client) pay pennies on the dollar and own the commercial voice production as it is a complete buy out. No residuals, no crazy high costs... just the best value on the planet!

Advantages of using a professional Voice-Over

What are the benefits of a professional produced Voice-Over for your company?

1. Using professionally produced Voice-Overs adds an additional dimension to your message delivery. This adds power and effectiveness, increasing retention of your message.


2. Using professionally produced Voice-Overs demonstrates attention to quality that your customer and employees will subconsciously and consciously respect.


3. Your target audience can be engaged in other activities while listening to your message. For example, shopping or working.

Why should you or your company use professional Voice-Overs?

1. It may seem easy to read words into a microphone, but subconsciously your audience is listening not only to the words, but also to the presentation. Ninety-four percent of our communication is nonverbal. It has been shown that if these nonverbal cues are missing in your Voice-Over, your listener can miss as much as seventy-five percent of the meaning.


2. Listeners will associate an unprofessional Voice-Over with your company’s attention to detail.


3. A professional talent is experienced in projecting these non-verbal cues.


4. A professional studio records the voice of the Voice-Over talent at the correct frequencies that brings out the talents best sound with no background noise.

Why use professional World Class voice over talents from Planet Charley Productions in the real estate industry?  That will be addressed soon in the next blog up date.

For 100+ seasoned World Class talents that are heard planet wide (and designed for small budgets) visit www.PlanetCharley.com and click on DEMOS.

Copy Writing Tips

For a marketing campaign to be successful, your ad copy needs to be insightful and respectful of its audience without sounding trite. While there's no one way of writing copy correctly, there are some general tips that can help you sharpen your advertising:

1. First and foremost, be as concise as possible. Keep sentences short, saving the academics for industry and trade writing. Try to write just enough to make your point, leaving the audience interested in or willing to buy the product.

2. Try to empathize with your audience. By putting yourself in their shoes, you can write copy with an eye towards their needs and desires. Don't concentrate on jargon they may not understand; write more about the benefits of the product and how it will make your target audience's lives better. Consumers value their time and money, and stressing how reading your ad will save them either of these commodities will greatly improve your chances of finding a new customer or client.

3. Avoid clichés. A cliché in advertising can act like a disease, crippling the impact of the ad. They aren't appreciated by the savvy consumer who views them as a cheap trick that only detracts from the effectiveness of the advertisement's message.

4. Along the same line, don't "stuff" the wording with lyrical prose that adds nothing to the content of the ad. Consumers today want to know the benefits of a product right away, and draping the ad in fancy wording or poetry will only bore them and cause them to look elsewhere. Whether you're writing copy for your own business or someone else's, your goal should be to entice the reader with the product, not impress them with your writing ability. The latter may briefly catch the audience's eye, but it won't interest them in what's being sold.

5. One small but important step many copywriters sometimes forget to do is proofread the ad. Even tiny mistakes in spelling or grammar can be glaring, leaving the consumer to wonder if the company really knows what it's talking about or if they actually care about what they're selling. A simple proofreading when you're finished writing can save you from a massive headache later on.

Writing ad copy is at once both simple and difficult; you need to write with your audience in mind, even if your personal writing style is different. Keeping your copy to the point and free of clichés or "stuffing" will improve your chances of consumers viewing it and purchasing what you're trying to sell.

We offer R.A.B. certified copywriters for your scripts.  Contact us about our services at www.PlanetCharley.com