November 9, 2023
The Power of Emotional Branding – A Voice Actor’s Guide To Doing It Right!
- You ever listened to an audio that made you cry? Honestly…
- What about hearing a jingle on the radio that instantly transported you back in time to a specific moment? Relatable?
- How about an empathetic plea that forces you to take action or perhaps a humor infused message that leaves you actually laughing out loud?
What do all three scenarios have in common?
Emotion. The ability to cause listener to feel a certain way
But it isn’t enough to simply cause someone to feel.
When clients come to me for voiceover work, it’s always about the audience and the emotion we’re are trying to evoke in them. We want them to feel and then ACT. The action can be anything from purchasing a product to donating to an organization, visiting a national park, or not texting and driving.
‘’Feelings are great, but actions are better. Voice messages don’t just need listeners. They need people to be affected by what they hear so they take action.’’ –Milena Tinoco, Bilingual Voiceover Artist
But to do this, the speaker must first understand the power of emotional branding. It’s one of my favorite things about being a voiceover artist and I’m gonna be sharing how it can be done and what factors can make or break it.
Ready? Let’s do this!
“ALL the Feels” aka Emotional Branding
In simple terms, you can think of emotional branding as a process. It’s basically how advertisers attempt to create a relationship between consumers and a product or brand by stirring up emotions with the marketing message.
This part right here… Evoking emotions is why it’s so important not only to #HireHuman, but to hire the right voice actor.
Some scripts might need to sound curt, professional and polished because of the target audience it is intended for, while others need to sound playful, caring, or warm.
The right voiceover artist will not only follow the client’s direction, but will also know what emotion fits each message and target audience as well as how to infuse that emotion into their delivery by adjusting their pitch, tone, pace, and inflections.
I have had a blast helping my clients’ give their audiences “ALL the feels” for over 11 years. It’s a nuanced skill that only an experienced human voice can deliver.
Versatility and Flexibility will always win!
The top voiceover artists have always been those who not only embody and evoke varying types of emotions, but those who can make adjustments “on the fly.” The ones who can look at a script and create a character with a back story and then delivery the copy as that person, but also collaborate with the creative team and change it up during a live session in real time.
Not everyone can do this, and that is why versatility and flexibility will always win. When delivering a series of a line, for example, the voice actor should be able to read it from 3 distinct perspectives, giving the producer and director options to work with.
Sometimes I get asked what helps me achieve this kind of versatility.
Five factors (in no particular order) come to mind;
- Client Collaboration (Listening to the client)
- Mic Proximity
- Facial expression
- Body movement (I always stand & move when performing)
- Experience (Practice, practice, practice)
If you’ve made it this far, thank you for reading! I can’t wait for you to read the next blog post to see why I love collaborating with my clients, how I am able to do so and why it is such an important part of my voiceover career.
Also, if you’re on LinkedIn, I’d love to add you to my network! Please follow my profile or connect with me. I talk about voiceover and my career as well as navigating life, mental health, and travel.
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/milenavoiceover/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/milenavoiceover/
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