The landscape of voice acting is changing rapidly in this AI-influenced world. It’s gone from basically two platforms where your commercial skills can be heard – radio and tv – to countless digital advertising platforms, like Google, Meta, Amazon, YouTube, LinkedIn, TikTok and on and on.
If you’re overwhelmed by it all, I’m with you. I still long for the days when we were treated like royalty: we went to professional studios to audition and record commercials, and the engineers would buzz around you, making sure everything was right. Sometimes there was even a cappuccino bar with scones. But I digress.
Now, we have our own studios at home where we record everything, send sound files to clients digitally…and we make our own coffee.
There are a lot of positives! The plethora of commercial platforms means endless job possibilities for voice actors, if you know where to look and how to target the right opportunities.
It’s not difficult to find audition opportunities for digital advertising. Many companies are using popular pay-to-play sites, like Voices.com and Voice123, to find voice talent.
Your acting skills will need to morph into whatever the given platform needs to be effective.
Script analysis skills, exceptional articulation, and clarity are paramount, and your ability to relate to your target audience is crucial.
Most important is your ability to be specific.
You may only have a few seconds to get your message across in a believable and engaging way – your ability to be specific with your intention in the script is non-negotiable. There’s no wiggle room.
There’s a huge difference between traditional commercial advertising on radio and television and the digital medium. The challenge is to become an expert at shapeshifting between them.
The day may come when the voices of well-known actors invade digital advertising platforms, so don’t abandon your acting chops to the announcer style. Great actors can say a handful of words with big impact.
Play with the script, no matter how short or long it is, and have fun making it a masterpiece.
Work on keeping your relatable humanity, no matter what the script says or what time frame you are given.
Remember, it doesn’t matter the medium you are seen or heard in, or how long the performance is: you are first and foremost an actor.
Though the business may shift and evolve, actors have been an integral part of human society for thousands of years, and we aren’t going anywhere.
P.S. If you haven’t yet taken our introductory voice-over class, where we go over everything one needs to know about getting started in the voice-over industry, sign up here!
