Areas of Demand for Voice Overs Despite Economic Downturn

Julie-Ann Dean: Welcome to Voiceover Experts brought to you by Voices.com, the number one voiceover marketplace. Voiceover Experts brings you tips, pearls of wisdom and techniques from top instructors, authors and performers in the field of voiceover. Join us each week to discover tricks of the trade that will help you to develop your craft and prosper as a career voiceover talent. It’s never been easier to learn, perform, and succeed from the privacy of your own home and your own pace. This is truly an education you won’t find anywhere else.
This week, Voices.com is pleased to present Bettye Zoller.
Bettye Zoller: One of the greatest things about the voiceover business and this is my 34th year is that it keeps reinventing itself just as we, voiceover talents should start reinventing ourselves periodically which I had certainly have done given the new fields in voiceovers to do new things.
When I first started, voiceovers were primarily commercials mostly for radio and some for TV. We seldom did anything else. Then narrations started getting more popular. One thing after another happens. That’s why I have been saying since the start of this current doom gloom recession that I am rising above that. I have been around in this business a long time and I assure all of you, voiceovers are pretty much recession-proof certainly more so than the vast majority of other types of businesses.
Although the advertising business was worse in 2008, according to a recent forecast by a firm called Fitch Ratings in Chicago, the year 2009 will be different because while it may be true that airlines; automotive, car rentals, financial services, hotels, and retail spending may slow, the popular magazine, Advertising Age says that other things will fill the gap. Projections from several advertising research firms show that while local television stations probably will show revenues down and the networks will suffer certain amount as well.
Cable will stay strong as well advertising on special events. Narration is bigger and better than ever. The audiobook industry is better than ever. Internet advertising will remain strong and won’t stop growing, 2009 and afterwards is straight up. And just in 2008, internet advertising zoomed up 16%. So be sure and get your act together as far as doing voiceovers for internet is concerned. Advertisers will take advantage of great cable rates which will remain lower than network TV rates and so, we’re still going to have a lot of commercials to do for cable TV.
And by 2010, most people say that the economy with luck will emerge from this so-called recession and internet advertising may account for 17%, nearly one-fifth of advertising spending. And film and video companies can produce for this studio media, another area of voiceovers that is going nowhere but up is telephone messaging. A recent article in the Wall Street Journal talks about voiceover talents who do telephone work for credit card companies because there is so much delinquent account calling to do.
Scripts usually are based on the instruction from the client, the material is then fine-tuned to the company and the particular exact financial condition of this particular customer they’re phoning, you work from home and currently, the pay scale for this delinquent account telephone calling ranges from $100 to $300 per hour. It’s going nowhere but up.
Do some research on the firms that are providing voiceover talents for delinquent account calling. This is another fabulous area. The voices of toys will not slow and toy manufactures very soon will be taking about Christmas 2010 and beyond, so be sure that you include some voices of toys on your demo. It always stays strong.
The video game work, it is going nowhere but sky high. A number of national reports have commented on how the popularity of games always increases in times of recession or depression. Investigate the people who are designing games. They’re everywhere, little pockets of video game designers. Become friends with them and get on their roster of voices. The other thing is video games require a large cast of voices so there are lots of jobs to be had. And remember, there are local businesses who could certainly use more business. So, go say hello and take your voiceover demo CD and tell them you’re a voiceover talent and perhaps you can program their telephone providing sold on hold messaging so that people who call hear sales messages while they’re on hold. That’s a great idea.
Maybe you can voice a commercial for the merchants. They might become a steady advertising account for you. In this age of specialized advertising outlets and specialized voiceover jobs, I suggest to my students that if their talent lies perhaps in video game voicings, do a video game demo. Anime? Do an anime voicing demo. Anime is a very special thing. Find out about it before you even think about doing a demo. It’s a very special type of read and a special type of demo.
Audiobook demos are longer than regular demos. Usually, 6 to 10 minutes. Those who hire audiobook voicings want to know that you can sustain the read and you should put a wide variety of literature on your audiobook demo. Just a commercial demo won’t cut it anymore. You need a narration demo too, of course and be sure it includes some corporate training because corporate training will never end.
A recent article in Marquee Magazine, January-February 2009 talks about a new field called shopper marketing which is this touchscreen technology. These types of products used to be called point-of-purchase advertising and it used a video that was looped and ran endlessly on a little TV in various departments in the store. That still happens but also the interactive video presentations with the touchscreens are getting more and more popular. A recent study by the Grocery Manufacturers Association conducted in 2007 shows that shopper marketing is going to zoom and by 2010, it will account for 17% nearly one-fifth of all advertising spending.
Hope this helps. Bettye Zoller, voices Voices.com.
Julie-Ann Dean: Thank you for joining us. To learn more about the special guest featured in this Voices.com podcast, visit the Voiceover Experts show notes at Podcasts.Voices.com/VoiceoverExperts. Remember to stay subscribed.
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