Radio Sales Café

Happy Friday, everyone!

This week's poll question is a two-parter:

1) What percentage of your advertisers voice their own ads?

2) What are your thoughts on having clients doing their own voicework?

Looking forward to reading your replies!

None of my clients voice their own ads, but when i do campaigns that require authority eg Insurance, or health matters, my clients say, doctors working in non governmental organizations, and technical experts say a well known specialist may be an engineer can do the voice. In addition, we have marketers with very good voice overs, i recruit them , train them and they build their brands in radio.I also had a client who had imported second hand fridges from UK but didn't have enough money for the voice over, i wrote an ad for him, he voiced it and in two days all the 100 units were bought. And on a lighter note,if the client is difficult, make his logo bigger and put him in the ad . let him do the voice!

A very low percentage voice their own ads. We have two or three regular clients who are absolutely excellent at producing their own commercials and they have positioned themselves as THE car dealer in the region...THE jewelry dealer in the area...
On the other hand, most clients should never go anywhere near a mic. If a client starts doing their own recording and they stink at it..... How do you tell them. Be very careful when encountering this situation. Most of the time you will be doing them a favor by talking them out of it. But talking them out of it without insulting them is just about impossible.

One third of our accounts voice their commercials. It's actually more work convincing them to do that than it is to provide our advertising service. I explain this is another radio sales tool. It makes the customer feel as they already know the owner-mgr. when they hear that voice out in public. I relate it to a Radio Handshake.

Kent Lankford
WAKO 103.1 FM & THE BIG AM 910
Lawrenceville, Ill. -- Vincennes, Ind.

Around 30% of our clients voice thier own ads. I push my sellers to get thier clients more involvesd with the production. You have to make sure that they will be able to project thier voice enough to make it sound good. Do not put a client on that has problems speaking up in your meetings. That is never a very good outcome. I have Doctors, Lawyers, and all kinds of other professionals that do thier own spots.
Tiffany Kayser

Maybe up to 25%. Anytime we can get a client to voice there own ads we encourage it. I would prefer to write for them, but some of our clients do some very good work.One car dealer's owner and Sales Manager ad lib the spot - theater of the mind stuff (remember that?). And the ads are a riot, distinctive and memorable. After all who knows their business better? If your production people are patient and helpful they make the client comfortable in a first time experience. Then, like the rest of us, they'll get hooked and never want to stop. And, of course, the most obvious...they get feedback.."..Hey, I heard you on the Radio...". They're a star!

Just a few. Depends on their willingness, voice ability and whether it ultimately adds anything to the message/offer. Sometimes if there is a compelling story by the business owner and they are physically visible in their business, it can work in their favor. If you choose to have the owner voice their own ad, ask the tough questions.

very few inprove my radio career however i think it can be effective if your client has a unique tone or accent or can radiate emotion. I have heard some bad client voice spots though over my career my advice would be have a couple of professional options done for the client to review before you go down the road of client voicing the spot.

I've used client voices for many of the businesses that need to have the connection to the listener, ie dermatologists, insurance people, etc.

I have a client right now who has a little bit of a scratchy sounding voice, and still debating on whether to have her record her own spots. I may do both a spot from her & have it professionally recorded. Any other thoughts?

I would guess less than 15%. As to them doing their own ads I really favor it under the right circumstances. If the client is comfortable with the script and does a good job of delivery it makes the commercial more personal. It becomes a one to one conversation with the listener and can have great benefit.

However, the tough situation is a client who wants to air their own ads and they're terrible. It really tests you as a salesperson. You really need to tell them but how?

We're a general agency, and at the moment, we have two clients on radio. One of those clients is voicing his own commercials. The other client has testimonials. Both campaigns were produced exactly the same way: non-professional voice talent sitting behind a microphone, answering relevant questions about the business and what it means to be a customer. Then, those extemporaneous recordings are cherry picked and massaged to create glowing sound bites. When we know what the performer is saying via the magic of non-linear digital editing, we write announcer wraparounds.

That is just about the ONLY way we ever let clients voice their own commercials.

When you hand them a script and crack the mic, most clients' voiceover sound like exactly what it is: amateur product. Sometimes, that can be endearing and work in their favor. Too often, it just sounds bad. If it must be done that way, there are simple tricks to directing them that make them sound much better. But overall, I try to never make a client read a script or carry the entire weight of the voiceover on his shoulders. Whenever possible, I record him extemporaneously and pull out the nuggets. It's more real than anything we could ever write, and it presents the client in the best, most flattering light possible.

About four out of ten Local Direct clients are voicing their own ads. This has been a very successful tactic for developing/keeping LD revenues in check. We also use it as an indirect form of lead generation. Area business owners and operators hear "other" area business owners and operators on the radio.......that helps our call in lead generation.

From Chris Ripley, operations mgr at KOZE in Lewiston, ID, via LinkedIn:

"Some clients can deliver the goods in radio copy; some can't. They usually have the most passion about their product or business. So it sounds natural and works. That said, I've seen (heard) some train wrecks too."

I agree with Dave. The client doing the ad gives immediate feedback. I used to beleive the client doing the ad was one of the worst ideas ever...but I've changed my mind. I write a very strong message in a conversational style. I go over it with the client to make sure the inflection is correct and our Production Manager is great. About 30% of my clients do their own ads and some of them are the most successful campaigns.

Approximately two-thirds of my top local clients do all or most of their own commercials. Of these, most read from scripts, and have been doing them for so many years that they're reasonably comfortable at the mic. I'm a pretty driven coach, and have no problem asking for repeated "takes" until I have sufficient material to piece together an effective spot. In some cases, I take the approach Blaine Parker describes above, recording conversations and extracting the gold. It's a time-consuming and painstaking process, but the end product typically justifies the investment. (This is the only approach I use for testimonials, and it's a great way to engage listeners in a campaign that's intended to reveal the client's story one idea or installment at a time.)

Do my clients have the training and polish of voice actors? Of course not. Nor is it important that they do, in the context of a local market where they are known by many. What's important is that they come across as who-they-are, doing what-they-do, that they sound authentic and credible, and that the content of their communication meets their customers' needs. When all these factors line up, the results speak for themselves*.

I don't disagree with Blaine's analysis for the most part, based on the fact that too many of the client-voiced commercials I hear seem to have been done hastily and without critical analysis. Whether due to a lack of education/training, a lack of time/effort, or a lack of concern, I see no excuse for this. The salesperson, producer and client alike must be willing to invest the time and effort to persist until it's right. Either do it well or don't do it at all.

It's interesting how attitudes toward client-voiced ads have changed over the past couple of decades. Today the practice is widely accepted. When I first started pushing for clients appearing in their own commercials back in the late 1970's, most radio programming and production folks resented it as an incursion onto their sacred turf. Their attitude was not unlike what we encountered from the education establishment when the home-schooling movement began to gain some momentum in the late 1980's. The passing of time and the accumulation of success stories have proved sufficiently the merit of both ideas, I think.

*Below are three examples from campaigns currently on the air. One is relatively new, having started this past summer. Two have been on the air for over a decade. (Sales trainer Jim Williams used to say that the real proof a campaign is working is that the advertiser continues to pay his monthly bill, year after year. Folksy, perhaps, but true nonetheless.)

About 10-20% of our advertiser's voice their own ads. Those that do get immediate feedback and tend to become long time advertisers because of that feedback. Some times it takes some serious effort to work with the client to make them sound they way they need to, to be successful but I think it is worth the effort. In a small town like Ketchikan, it really puts a "face" to the business and solidly brands the business. We actually encourage people to voice their own ads especially when they need to cut thru the clutter during political ad season. Many of the awards that KFMJ has won have been for spots voiced by the business owner or their representative.

Julie Slanaker
KFMJ 99.9 FM

Over 60% of our local clients voice their own ads. We encourage them to do so for several reasons: they have greater passion for their business, they will get more direct feedback, it is a very personal invitation for customers to come in to deal with someone they have already "met" through the radio and finally, because our station needs the voice variety! We have a very small staff and having the clients' own voices added to the mix of our voices giving weather, news and sports makes their message stand separate. But we really coach them as they record...that's the key. Our job is to make sure they sound their best - even if we had to make them read and read and read again during the process.

Good for you, Carol - glad to hear it!

Would love to hear some examples of your favorites, if you're willing to share them.

Best,

Rod

About 40% of our advertisers voice their own spots or at least have one or two lines in them....unless their voice is absolutely horrible. I've found the best thing that works is with a micro chip recorder with me asking the questions to them. Then I edit out my voice and make them sound really good. I usually tag the spot and end up with a beautiful piece of work that is emotionally inviting and tells exactly what the business has to offer. Their voice is very important as a personal invitation to do business with them. Then everywhere they go, people tell them they hear them on the radio. Ya think they're gonna stop advertising........? Of course, I am in control of the spot, the editing, the questions, the tag.......What do production people know about YOUR advertiser? Nothing! I do it all. More labor intensive, but it works. Then burn that spot on CD, put a pretty label on it and deliver it with their name and date on it. We sure do work hard in radio !!

I know im a little late on this one! Not very many of our clients voice their own ads. However the ones that do usually do a great job, and also make the ad stand out allot more. I agree that letting a client voice their own ad can be frustrating, especailly when they may not have the voice for it. However if your like most of us in this career were constantly faced with the challenge of proving that radio works. If their is one way we can "test" our medium, its by having clients voice their own ads. When a customer comes into their store, diner...etc and says hey i heard your voice on the radio, or hey I heard your ad! Did you do that? It is proof that not only are people listening, but that they are responding. Its one of the best ways to convince a stubborn client that they dont need to test our medium, but if they feel they absolutley have to, then they should voice their own ad!