Is your company being misled by
an unprofessional advertising agency?

The whole point of advertising is to persuade people to buy a product or service. Therefore, it is essential that a voiceover should be professionally trained in the correct technique. It seems that some producers who work for major television and radio advertising agencies either don't understand that words are the most important and persuasive tools we possess, or perhaps they are trying to save money by using amateurs!

A producer recently told me that he likes to use untrained voiceovers because they sound ‘natural’. People who think this are living in cloud-cuckoo-land, because sounding natural is the hardest thing for any actor or voiceover to achieve!
Only the very best can do this – Dame Helen Mirren, Jack Nicholson, Dame Judi Dench, Forest Whitaker, Meryl Streep, Robin Williams – and many professionally trained voiceovers.

How can any producer possibly imagine that an untrained voiceover can be as effective as a trained professional? Apart from anything else, they are irritating to listen to.

The following companies have used an untrained voiceover during the last year (this does not include celebrities) to sell their product or service on radio or television:

Jaguar, Nivea, Findus, L’Oreal, Kellogg’s, All Bran, Kia, IBM, Always, Garnier, Norwich Union, Purple Loans, Lloyds TSB, Great Ormond Street Hospital, Polaris World, Rennie Dual Action, Yellow Pages, Travelsupermarket.com and amazingly, most of the beauty products.
This is unbelievable!

Orson Welles,
'War of the Words'

Just listen to Orson Welles trying to record a TV commercial for Findus Frozen Foods as two unfortunate producers from J. Walter Thompson (one of the leading advertising agencies in the world) try to tell him how to do his job.

This was recorded some time ago, but the situation now is even worse because so many TV and radio commercial voiceovers are untrained.

Here are some of the worst habits of untrained voiceovers and broadcasters. These habits lead to a drop in retention and irritate the listener. These mistakes are contagious. 50% of the people studying the PSR™ Method have picked up these habits from television presenters and news readers in America and the UK.

One of the more common mistakes is that voiceovers and news readers emphasise insignificant words – ‘is’, ‘and’, ‘are’, ‘we’, ‘you’ and ‘your’.
They fail to recognise the most important words in a sentence.

Here’s Findus again.
Findus Frozen Foods used the line, 'Findus – the most tender peas'.
This is meant to evoke the memory of granny’s delicious roast beef and Yorkshire pudding with a pile of steaming, fresh, tender peas.
Obviously, ‘tender peas’ are the most important words, together with Findus, the name of the advertiser.

The voiceover said, ‘Findus - THE most tender peas’, which rather misses the point!

Another unfortunate habit is the insistence by some producers that the voiceover should emphasise the words ‘you’ and ‘your’.

For example:
' Make sure YOUR home is insured with XYZ Insurance Co.'
Whose home would you be insuring, if not your own?

Birdseye and Findus peas are both excellent products so how can anyone tell the difference between them?

Potential customers can only tell by the packaging design, the TV commercial and guess what?
The quality of the voiceover!