How to Choose the Right Voice Actor For Your Campaign

Choosing the right voice actor can make or break a campaign. The voice of your campaign signals your brand’s personality and sets the tone of your marketing promotion. The right voice actor can communicate key messages more effectively and give your brand more credibility.

To put it in simple words, the right voice over talent can give a strong impact to your brand’s potential for being noticed and help set you apart from the competition.

Planning is key

Before beginning your search for the perfect voice actor, consider your requirements. Who you end up choosing will depend on several factors, including your campaign’s goal, budget, and product or service.

For example, the perfect voice actor for a cosmetics campaign targeted at teenagers will sound very different from the voice actor for an insurance campaign targeted at Millennials.

Before starting your search for the right talent, make sure you know the answers to the questions below.

What is your goal?

Over and above the goals of your campaign, what do you want to achieve by hiring a voice actor? Do you want to inform, sell or build brand awareness?

What is your brand positioning?

The voice of your campaign will personify your brand for the duration of your campaign, and possibly beyond. Think about where your brand fits in the market and what sets it apart, especially in relation to direct competitors.

A premium brand whose unique selling point is safety might choose a voice actor with an authoritative, mature voice, while an accessible brand whose unique selling point is simplicity might choose an elegant and friendly voice with a natural tone.

Who is your target audience? 

People trust and relate to voices that remind them of themselves. If your primary target audience is British women over the age of 25, opt for a voice actor whose sound matches these qualities. If your brand is aspirational, choose a voice actor that sounds like what your target audience aspires to be.

What is your budget?

Your budget will influence the type of voice actor you’re able to hire. Experienced and well-known actors who’ve worked on notable campaigns can be expensive. But thankfully, finding voice talents has never been easier. Online platforms such as [ Outspoken Voices ] offer a vast pool of hand-picked professional voice over artists and make it easy for businesses to find high quality voices at competitive rates.

Casting Considerations

Before sending out your casting script, think about what kind of voice actor would best suit your campaign and overall brand. Creating a detailed casting script can save you time on your search but shouldn’t be so specific, that you exclude a potentially great fit that you hadn’t thought of earlier.

Key factors to consider are:

• Gender: Do you want a male or a female voice actor?

• Accent and dialect: There are more accents to be heard than you can imagine! Regional accents can make your campaign more personable, while neutral accents may be easier to understand. If you go the regional route, make sure you explore the background and skillset of Voice Artists you consider, to ensure they have the right acting skills you need for your specific project.

• Acting skills and versatility: Every project is different. Some require talented and versatile actors, able to convey several emotions and create distinct characters. Those will be great for animation and computer games, for example. Or maybe you need an artist, who can deliver calm and informative read, like an explainer video? 

• Previous work: Once you have a shortlist of voice actors you like, research their previous roles to get a better idea of who will be the best fit for your campaign.

With a solid outline of what you want, an experienced voice over actor should be able to craft the specific voice you need, as well as provide a memorable sound that customers will feel drawn to. Our artists have lent their voices to brands like Heathrow Airport, American Express, Play Station and more. Our extensive database of professional artists is the shortcut to finding the perfect voice, from audiobooks to adverts and beyond.

December 14th at 12:00am