In a world of endless choices and options, how do we decide what works best for our brand? And how do we know for certain that the choices we make for our projects will be the right ones?
As a professional British male Voice Over, I know the difficulties faced by brands, companies, and organisations when it comes to best representing their names out in the big wide world. I've seen it countless times. The AI voice just isn't quite getting the nuances and emotion across (and don't get me wrong, because sometimes they are pretty darn good), or Dan from the tech department was given the job, and he's not quite as clear in his diction as you'd like, or you've decided to opt out of voice over altogether and just throw the words on the screen, leading to lower customer engagement and a project that seems to go nowhere.
We've all seen those videos and listened to those projects, thinking...meh, and simply moving on to the next. In a world of fast consumerism, no one can afford not to grab their audience's attention or be clear about their storytelling goals.
But this isn't just about why you should hire an experienced, equipped and talented voice-over, this is about why you should hire a British voice-over. Ah, Britannia, the land of tea and scones, people who love nothing more than to talk about the weather and the language of cockney rhyming slang. And despite the colourful array of accents and dialects across these small lands, the resounding assurance of a British voice rings true amongst some of the biggest brands in the world.
Now sure, the American voice may still be most recognised and heard across a gamut of adverts, television shows, documentaries and audiobooks, but the British voice still holds a place of distinction, assertiveness and class, a calm and collected demeanour that ensures listeners everything is in hand, and nothing can go wrong.
That assuredness is one of the qualities that I have always brought to much of my corporate voice-over work, the reliance and comfort that ensures a listener all is well. There is something about the British that permeates our culture; that old wartime adage 'Keep Calm and Carry On' is a persistent theme amongst the Brits, and I think it's also evident in the way we communicate. A level of calm assertiveness is needed nowadays to bring audiences in and hold their attention, and that's exactly what a British voice can do.
But what about commercial voice-over work, what about something high energy or comedic, what about something intimate and personal? Well, the UK is home to some of the best acting schools in the world, and having been fortunate enough to study at The Guildford School of Acting, I know first-hand the rigorous actor training that professionals go through in the UK. This means that those skills are easily understood and translated into the spoken word. Much of young actors' time is spent on voice classes, helping them to learn the nuances of voice, how it can be used to elevate a character or diminish one, and how to enhance any project with just a shift in tone.
And, of course, our long history of telling stories, like all nations, goes far beyond our own lives, but we have a great sense of it from our past. And this history, this long and storied past, makes most of us who love to speak natural storytellers. As an avid reader, I have always loved the idea of narrating audiobooks, and as a British narrator, I feel that an audience listens intently to the British voice, no matter where in the world it's being played. From the dulcet tones of Stephen Fry to the wonderful characters of Miriam Margoyles, telling stories is a part of our world.
The English language is resoundingly universal, understood around the world, and the British accent, whether it be a more neutral accent or the properly placed queens English, ensures a distinctive type of communication, an assured sound of reliance and credibility, and of course, that little bit of character that we all know and love.
So why should you hire a British Male Voice Over, well...why the bloody hell not!
I hope you've enjoyed this blog,
signing out
SBVO!
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