Wednesday 28 March 2018

What is IVR?


Another genre of voiceovers is the growing use of the human voice when dealing with a phone system. 

Interactive Voice Response (IVR) and On-Hold are used to describe tecchnology that allows a telephony system computer to interact with the customer through the use of voiceovers. 

In the past customers would have had to talk to a switchboard operator or to a reception and have their call re-directed. If the phone were engaged with another call, then they would only hear the engaged tone. 

As technology moved on companies wanted to ensure that they could efficiently deal with customer inquiries as well as offering a personal touch. The aim is to avoid the customer floundering and knowing where they should be going next audiowise.




With IVR the technology is able to decipher the caller’s speech or touch response and directs the call as needed. Voices are used to enable the customer to hear choices and give clear answers so that the technology can direct them as needed. 

The voices that are chosen reflect clarity, an engaging tone and friendliness. Products, brands and services tend to choose a voice that is reflective of their brand. It will be the first time many clients will interact with that brand so the voice is key to maintaining that brand umbrella. 

On Hold differs from IVR simply as it does what it says, the moments that the customer is on hold is an opportunity for branding and interaction. As the customer waits on the line, music and/or conversation is played for them while they wait to transferred or held in a queue. 

The on hold messaging can provide important information to the caller such as a change in the company’s location, opening hours, new products, latest news and more. Humour or entertaining messages can be used to keep the client on the phone. 

These can be very creative for sound designers and we work on these daily and write our own scripts with up to date news as well as fun news stories and weather updates. Ricky often voices these as he is an experienced newsreader – but you know that anyway.



Don’t leave your customers with a chance to miss out on the key points of your voiceover business, service or product. Leave them informed and happy to have dealt with you. 

Wednesday 21 March 2018

What is an Explainer Video?


A recent voiceover and video trend over the past decade is the rise of the explainer video. This video is as the name suggests, explains a brand, product or service to the viewer in a short 2D animation format. 

The style can be as simple or as complicated as you require depending on what information and needs you want to convey.  A voiceover which acts as the brand, product or service representative is there to connect the dots that visually appear in a verbal manner. 

The aim is to explain to the viewer what the brand, product or service can offer in a clear and concise way.


                                                        
The video is usually embedded on the client’s website and/or youtube or other social media channel. As the rise of youtube in search functionality and SEO becomes more important we are seeing an increase in the production of these voiceover led explainer videos. 

Google has made it crystal clear that your company, service or brand will be favoured upon in search functions if there is a related business video and they would be in the know as they own YouTube. 

These days according to Google, more and more people are using youtube as a search function. It is important to note that this video usage on a clients website is different than if and when it is used on their youtube channel.


The video aims to explain and inform the brand, product or service but it is not an advert. If the explainer video explains then the advert entertains. The advert is much more a conceptual piece or visual art and the explainer video spells things out a lot more. 

An example would be for a smart phone. The advert would be sleek, entertaining and informative showing off the phone and its key unique selling proposition. The explainer video would a step by step guide about how to use the phone, what it does, how it works etc. Our voiceovers understand the difference – do you?

Explainer video maybe animation driven but this is different from animation videos/work as per below. Voices used are generally engaging, professional and confident yet friendly. An offshoot to this are the myriad of corporate or B2B videos that are also popular. These are similar to explainer videos except they are range from being more informative and about the company. 




They often show a brand, product and service but are not likely to be a “how to” video which most explainer videos are. We excel in this type of genre as all our voices are very experienced in corporate narration. Examples include videos shown at conferences, in company presentations, from one client to another. 

You may have seen these in dentists/spas/hairdressers where you see videos showing off the technical product. They are not adverts (see first entry) as they are for a specific business to attract. 

Do you want to have one of our voiceovers explain your brand, product or service? Give us a call and we can cast and reel in your voice.

Wednesday 14 March 2018

How Do Voiceovers Work?


A few weeks ago we enjoyed the snowy weather and while it has caused a fair bit of chaos we found it a great opportunity to stop and take stock. 

After a very busy January and February with clients booking our voiceovers from everything from commercials to video projects and also a huge job, March is when we can take a moment, a beat, a pause, a breathe.




What has been going on this year? So far, our school of voices have been very busy narrating all sorts of projects and our sound engineers editing the audio, working as a team to ensure the clients get the very best productions.  

Now as we have a moment to bob along the seabed of audio, many clients ask us how does voicceover work...work? They want to know what they need to do to book our voices and also how it works. Simply, all you need to do is call us and we can sort out your voiceover needs. 


With over 2000 voices on our books, we have a vast selection of chatty characters to fit the bill. Need a Pope, tradesman, authentic, conversational, premium, quality, versatile voice? We have them all and more. You call, we book, record and send you the final audio. Simples. And you can also listen into your session as well.

This year our voices worked solidly and diligently on varied voiceover projects and we have been impressed with them all. Five things that continually impress our clients and us about our voices.


  1. Consistency; Our voiceovers are consistently on it, whether it be the scrip they have to read to the training to keep their voices in tip top condition. They are serious professionals who work hard for our clients every time.
  2. Taking direction;  Our clients give notes to voices in every session and our voices not only talk for a living but listen, take note and then talk some more.
  3. Flexibility; audio projects and scripts can change depending on what needs the client has. With our  flexible voices these video production or commercial projects are narrated in double quick time.
  4. Delivering more; clients ask our voices to change tone, pace, pitch, delivery and every time our voices come back with choices that the client loves even more.
  5. Fun; we love our voices and we love working with them, friendly, fun and fish loving voiceover talent who can have a laugh and a cup of tea with after their sessions.
Whatever your voiceover needs just give us a call, drop us a line, reel us in and we’ll all deliver.