First impressions have a lasting impact. Everyone has a friend that when they first met, was totally unapproachable. Trust me, I know because for most of my college years, I was that friend! My friends didn’t admit this to me until about 2 years into our relationship, and we still laugh about it. The same can be true for many businesses. Not only can they can seem out of reach for consumers, but the brand can be represented by several different identities. We’re seeing trends that encourage one voice and one face for the entire brand. Take for example, Flo at Progressive. Flo is just your everyday lady. She isn’t overly fancy, she has a sense of humor, and she sounds like almost anyone. What you didn’t realize that by making Flo so “ordinary” or “normal” Progressive created a brand that is approachable and appears like a “real’ person.When a brand becomes approachable consumers tend to be more trusting. An approachable brand in 2017 reassures the customer that they are cared for and won’t be just another sales number. Not only is this approachable marketing being used more for commercial advertisements on TV and the internet, but it is becoming popularized in the professional voice recording industry too.
Holdcom has been around in the professional recording industry for about 30 years now. We’ve always provided mostly professional announcer type voices. Well, recently we’ve seen a large influx of clients seeking more “real” voices. Along with the new trend of the girl or guy next door, we’ve also noticed a few others like the increase in conversational recordings and the emphasis on a brand’s voice. Check out our recording and coaching tips below, to ensure your voice talent is the right fit for your customers and brand!
Girl/Guy Next Door Vs. Professional Announcer Voice
A “Guy/Girl Next Door” is a nice voice and friendly sounding, not too professional, and not having the announcer style. A good example, is our voice talent Pat. You can review his voice sample here. Now, the opposite of the “Guy/Girl Next Door” is the Professional Announcer Voice. This type of style tends to be less casual, smoother, and more fluent. A great example of this style is our voice Aleta. Her voice sample can be reviewed here.
A genuine “Guy/Girl Next Door” voice is recommended anywhere you’re trying to offer genuine support. A Professional Announcer voice is great to use in radio spots and on phone systems. Not only does the medium used affect the style voice to use, but your industry does too. Those in mental health services, real estate, insurance, and hospitality industries may want to use the “Girl/Guy Next Door” voice. Companies and organizations in technology, transportation, legal, and logistic industries may want to use the voice announcer type voice.
More Conversational
Clients not only are seeking more realistic sounding voices, but the content submitted for recording now has a casual tone. The scripts we’ve been receiving the past two years have been less “stiff.” Companies want to be conversational and represent their brand voice using that approachable manner. Clients want to feel like they are working with neighbors and not some giant corporate entity. Using a casual tone in the scripting sends a message that the company does care. Companies are shying away from sounding like a giant corporation, which was more trendy back in the 80’s. Scripts have become quirkier too. Typically, they’ll include an authentic tagline, or anything to make the caller realize that normal everyday people work there. For example, a client has a greeting with the operating hours for the summer. Instead of just saying “our summer hours on Friday are…” they say “On Fridays in the summer, we go to the beach…” Companies are no longer scared to put creative things in their recordings and want to illustrate personality, through all methods! Which brings us to our third trend…
Brand Voice
Companies have never taken their brand voices more seriously. Not only should the voice connect with the target audience, but they should represent the brand. “There is always a first time for everything” is a common phrase we often hear, but in recording it’s true. Recently, we’ve had multiple clients making requests for accents that we have never had before. We’ve had clients near Mexico request an English-speaking voiceover talent with a Mexican accent, so that their customers can relate on a local level. A few weeks after we had a pharmaceutical company from the south request a southern voiceover talent. The trend is towards local, authentic, casual voices.
Is it possible that these trends have become common due to the high increase in startup companies? Maybe, these trends are being pushed because of the casualness in language in general? With the birth of social media, conversation has pretty much been limited to 140 characters or less. Regardless of the factors that are pushing these trends, callers and customers will always want the same things: to find a company that’s relatable, a company that is reassuring, and approachable.
Whatever you want. We can do it. Contact us today to see what we can do for you!
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