What are Ad Agencies looking for?
How do they work?
Do they use AI in their casting?
What gets their attention?
We cover all this and more with the help of some great ad agency pros.
During VO Atlanta, I moderated an ATLANTA AD AGENCY panel. There were some incredible women on this panel, like:
Sarah O’Bryan
Group Creative Director, Notorious
Previously VP Group Creative Director of Hothouse. Sarah has worked in the industry for almost 20 years. She’s a UGA grad, and has worked on campaigns for IHG Hotels & Resorts, Mercedes-Benz USA, Deloitte, Brutus Bone Broth, CORT Furniture, COX Automotive, Delta and Aflac.
Renee Williams Royal
President, Test Tube Productions
Previously worked at BBDO, JWT and more. She’s also been in the industry for almost 20 years. Renee’s worked with many brands during her career: Verizon, Georgia Natural Gas, Georgia Pacific, BB&T, UPS, Wells Fargo, AT&T, Coca-Cola, Aaron’s, Southern Company, Georgia Power and Kellogg’s to name a few.
Susan Cooper
Project Manager, Tombras
Susan has not only worked at Ad Agencies for a couple decades, she’s also a voice actor herself and creator of a scripted podcast series, The RomComFormula.
Tara Ochs
Head of Development for Dagger Originals
Tara is an established writer, performer, producer and teacher in Atlanta. She’s a sought-after improv coach and comedy director for corporate clients like Home Depot, Oracle, Kimberly-Clark, Chick-fil-a and numerous other companies. Tara currently produces commercials at Atlanta-based ad agency Dagger.
If you were at VO Atlanta and didn’t get to attend, you can watch the replay that’s now available. If you didn’t go to VO Atlanta, I’m sharing my highlights and lessons gained from this panel of experts!
1| MOST OF THE TIME THE CLIENT GOES WITH THE AGENCY’S REC
Have you heard from people, “They don’t know what they want.” Maybe that’s the case occasionally, but the ad agency has spent (oftentimes) months reviewing the creative and direction with the client. When they are casting the voice over, they have a pretty good idea of what they’re looking for.
2| ALL PANELISTS PREFER NO SLATE
It takes time and they can see your name in the file. With advertising, the VO is the last piece of the pie. They usually have at least a rough cut of the spot and all they need is the VO and it’s ready to roll. They work fast and saving time where they can is key. (That said, if your agent wants a slate, give it to ‘em.)
3| SECOND TAKES
All said these are helpful but not necessary. I’ve heard many talent agents, coaches, and even casting directors say to make sure my 2nd take is WAY different. At least this panel said if you’re going to do another take, vary the energy. It doesn’t have to be drastically different. They’ve already chosen the music, so they’re not suddenly going to do a 180 on what they want.
4| BAD AUDIO = NO
If your audition has bad audio, they won’t send it to the client. Hard no, they said.
5| FIRST 10 SECONDS
They said if the talent doesn’t sound like the right fit in the first ten seconds, they won’t keep listening.
6| TOP REQUESTS FROM CLIENTS/BRANDS
Authentic, real human voices AND men. They’ve seen an uptick in clients requesting male voices.
7| NEVER USE A SYNTHETIC VOICE IN AUDITION
I was at a conference where a leader in the VO industry said they used their AI/Synthetic voice to submit an audition. The panelists here said they can tell and that’s an automatic no.
8| AD AGENCIES DO USE SYNTHETIC VOICES, BUT…
Only for scratch reads. Sometimes the client or brand WILL ask to just use the AI scratch voice for the final product but the ad agencies try and push back.
9| NEGATIVE USING AI VOICES?
When the client/brand DOES want to use an AI voice, it is ALWAYS way more work than just hiring a human actor.
10| BUNDLING “ASSETS”
A lot of clients/brands these days need a lot of “assets” – meaning, different spots for various platforms – and want to lump them all in for a smaller rate. Your talent agent should be on top of this. But if you’re working directly with an ad agency, make sure to look over EVERYTHING included, and push back if they want to end up with 25 assets for the price of 2.
I’m so appreciative of this panel and the time they gave sharing their experience and expertise. What they communicated was invaluable, and what an honor to have such an experienced panel.
If you haven’t attended VO Atlanta, these are the types of helpful sessions you can find.
