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!
