Audio Trends, Branding, and the Client Experience

business, online vo sessions, production, VO tech, voiceover

Voiceover is part of many creative elements within a project serving a business need. It could be for internal onboarding or training of employees. It can be direct consumer advertising campaigns or part of a marketing mix. It’s sometimes embedded within products for sale, from audiobooks and podcasts to film. And that spans from Alexa to Disney, from Yahoo to the old ‘Got Milk’ campaign. Even with simple or sophisticated phone systems, the voice is still a part of the experience within the brand.

As content marketing expands in all markets, in multiple channels, the opportunities for branding also multiply. Will the opportunities for voiceover bloom, as well?

There are exciting new trends in how audio is created or used in marketing and to enhance the client experience. It’s a new way of considering business, impacting audio and, yes, even voiceover.

Have you heard about sonic branding?

A strong trend to consider – sonic branding is a unique sound of your brand or company or even a specific product. We’re not talking about the ‘jingle’, although I’d say that fits under this umbrella. From what I understand, sonic branding considers not only the elements like music, effects, voice and theme but additionally who is the audience, what pleases them and draws them in.

You create a unique sound that is always included in a specific experience. I suppose it’s similar to using a company logo for any media. Insert the sonic brand wherever the audio fits, just like you would your logo. I’m hearing of multiple audio-only agencies sprouting up to assist companies with creating and managing their sonic brand. One, in particular, MassiveBass, created a new data-driven sonic branding tool using brand archetypes and values matched to music, to create unique sonic branding strategies. And recently one well-known brand, MasterCard, launched its own sound for all ads and purchase moments.

As the big companies embrace sonic branding, will your team as well?

Other exciting new audio trends…

There’s a whole new platform in audio-only called Clubhouse. An exclusive audio-only invite-only social app, gaining huge traction since launch March 2020. It features spontaneous and scheduled voice-only conversations centered around specific topics. Companies are sponsoring events here, so I’m told. As membership grows, and you get invited, invite me! Although I’m hesitant to add more social media, I’m very curious and would love to ‘get a hear’!

Podcasts are not so new, however, are rising in popularity for businesses. Podcasts with branded original content targeting B2B, B2C and internal audiences are growing. It seems to have taken a while for businesses to figure out how to embrace them beneficially. I’m noticing how podcasts are targeted to support onboarding, employee development, product usage and probably more. Some companies have invited me to voice specific product line trainings distributed via podcast, using other voices for different product lines. Another client is using my voice with internal business podcast intro/outros, matched with script and music to uniquely identify the specific sales topic. This company uses star performers’ voices, as well.

These are the biggest trends I see that also seem to have longevity built-in. Although I’m less sure about Clubhouse, unsure about the ‘trendy’ part of sonic branding, and quite sure about podcasts. Let’s check in after another year!

Collaboration Platforms in 2020

accountability, business, creative professionals, small business, VO tech

Collaboration Platforms?

The year 2020 brought us a great, big, (ugly) new reason to work remotely from home. Although I’ve been working from home and am celebrating my 10th year anniversary, 2020 even brought me and you – us all – new collaboration tools.

A vital collaboration platform or app is one you can use easily and share with internal employees or external clients easily. You use it to organize, plan, execute projects, and offer media assets to be reviewed or changed. Put simply, it’s any piece of online software that helps people get work done together in teams.

Collaboration platforms have been multiplying as long as I’ve been in business. The year 2020 pushed the use of them to new levels. My clients have shared many tools with me as I travel with them on their project timeline and make my contribution. I’m really impressed and excited by how many companies and people have truly embraced this tech.

Below is a curated list of impressive tools I’ve come across. I use only a few regularly but I really appreciate the strength and agility this gives to so many.

Before I share the list, I have to say this: CONGRATULATIONS to all of you who transitioned to working from home due to a pandemic! The temerity to keep going through this very difficult time, to keep the work flowing, to keep the world somewhat sane – THANK YOU! Take a moment to look at what you’ve been able to achieve, especially without having seen this coming. WOW.

Tools I’ve used regularly

Google Workspace: Formerly called GSuite, now it’s Google Workspace. It holds all the online versions of Office as well as connects to email. I use this daily and have for years. It’s very effective for when I travel, also for my virtual assistant and I to work on shared documents. It’s also useful for surveys you can do with Forms.

Trello: Has an intriguing interface that lets you drag task cards across columns. It’s easy to learn and works well for monitoring projects and assigning tasks. Project management, task assignments, prioritization. Fully customizable. I use this a few times a month with my virtual assistant.

Slack: Started as a simple messaging system and has turned into a scalable, integrated, customizable collaboration tool. Project management, task assignments, prioritization. Fully customizable

Tools clients have shared with me

Wipster: Built for creative teams that need to share a lot of assets, deal with visual and audio materials, client sign-offs, etc.

Basecamp: Project management, task assignments, prioritization, internal communications. Increase organization and communication, with fewer meetings (hopefully). Fully customizable.

Other tools that seem to have good reputations

From a bit of research I recently did, the following three were suggested by some of my LinkedIn connections. These appear to offer project management, task assignments, prioritization, person-to-person video chat and screen sharing. Fully customizable and integrations available. Flowdock even seems to have the capability to adjust time zones per person.

Asana
Flowdock
Ora

Contact me directly with any other good platform suggestions!

My email is at the top of this page.

Directed Voiceover Sessions – Zoom Caution and Alternates

online vo sessions, post-production, production, VO tech, voiceover

Zoom Caution – Use a password

I confess – I was a huge fan of Zoom and now I’ve tempered that but still use it, particularly since I use the audio-only option for voiceover. If you didn’t know, due to the huge migration of people from office to remote working due to COVID19, Zoom usage surged, and their security and privacy flaws quickly became ‘talk of the town’. Most circumstances I’ve heard about were large group Zoom events, some open to the public. This is different from a voiceover session with as few as 2 to a likely maximum of 10 participants. Keep that in mind. However, security and privacy issues still exist, so use with caution.

For a voiceover session, use Zoom by incorporating a password and ask people to sign in (vs a simple link). I’ve used Zoom for several years now and haven’t any security breaches, but again my sessions are a handful of people only. If you are using Zoom for other purposes or larger gatherings, I suggest looking at your alternatives.

Alternatives – Rebecca’s top two choices:

Webex

It’s the same idea as Zoom: video and audio conferencing. The audio on this is as high quality as Zoom, and I use it as easily as Zoom. There’s a free basic level just like Zoom. I’ve used it for several clients and it was flawless.

Skype

It’s the same idea as Zoom: video and audio conferencing. I’ve used it many times in audio sessions. There is a free basic level. However, I do not prefer because it can create conflicts when connected to my audio recording software. Since that’s the whole point with a voiceover session, I actually try to avoid Skype.

I hope this helps you give proper consideration to Zoom. There are many more options here, where I got portions of my information:

Directed Voiceover Sessions With What Online Platform?

online vo sessions, post-production, production, VO tech, voiceover

Friendly platforms for online directed voiceover sessions

An online directed voiceover session means having a high-quality audio connection over the internet to let a client direct a voice actor as if they were in the same place. An online directed voiceover session connects the voiceover talent with an engineering studio and clients. It’s multiple locations online at the same time, to direct and record a script for a creative project.

Online directed sessions are used for all types of audio and video production and post-production. From public-facing projects like films, advertising and corporate videos to internally facing projects like corporate training or sales presentations. And more.

It’s a relatively simple concept. A client directs the voice actor. The voice actor performs the script. Recording is either remotely done by the audio engineer or locally by the voice actor. There can be more or less people and responsibilities, but this is the basic idea.

Below are great options for sessions online.

Platforms for online sessions with remote recording by an audio engineer:

My ‘go to’ platform is Source-Stream, from Source-Connect.

I use Source-Stream almost weekly. Why is it my ‘go to’ platform? Clients use it! At least that’s why I started with it. Source-Connect is a very easy to use app. It’s relatively low-latency, which can vary based on internet providers. They offer a bridge to ISDN if needed. Finally, they have terrific support and it’s affordable.

Per Source-Elements the parent company, “Automatic Network Configuration is … Source-Stream, a new feature that allows for global, low-latency firewall traversal for your connections.” Source-Elements has been in business since 2005. My experience with clients worldwide is that most audio producers use Source-Connect, while some still use ISDN.

I highly recommended the lesser known SessionLinkPRO.

I have only used this a few times, but it was even easier to use than Source-Connect. It is used through your browser. I experimented with it both as a VO actor and as an audio producer. Pretty straight-forward and I didn’t feel any latency. I got the sense that for someone not expert at audio, this might be a viable option for a remote or online directed session. My wish is that more pros start checking out this little darling of a platform.

Additional platforms allowing online directed voiceover sessions (as of 2020)

I have found out about but not yet used Connection Open. Recommended by others, I’m looking forward to testing it out and trialing it with any willing producers.

I have trialed and have an account with ipDTL. Also recommended by others, I haven’t used ipDTL professionally yet because no clients have asked for it.

Platforms for directed sessions with local recording done by me, the voice actor:

Many clients prefer me to handle the recording locally. This again is a simple arrangement. The clients and the voice actor are not in the same location, so you want an online solution.

Primarily I prefer web-conferencing services like Zoom, and then WebEx. I’ve used both with much success and little to zero latency nor interference with my local audio interfaces. Multiple people log into the session from multiple locations.

My last choice but still functional options are a VOIP like Skype, or a Telephone ‘patch’. This is a phone call into my studio. My client won’t hear the same audio fidelity as all of the other services above, but it gets the job done.This is my last choice because I sometimes run into issues or interference with my audio interfaces. Skype specifically doesn’t like connections longer than an hour!

These findings are based on several years of experience in the trenches, and I’m happy to share with you.

Please feel free to reach out to me directly if you have questions.

REBECCA HAUGH Female Voice Actor