VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

[Lee Gordon]

[Dayo]

[FinMac]

Wow! Thank you all for such great stuff to chew on.

Have modified my "client list" to "some of my clients include...", and cut it down in size.

95 % of what I do is corporate narration. Many of these show up on the internet. They are not "commercials", at least not TV or Radio commercials, but they are UTub promotions.

Not trying to brag about what I have done. Simply hope to get more work because a potential client sees that I have done work for large corporations. One problem is that outside Scandinavia many of these groups are not well known, even if they are companies worth billions.

Appreciate your thoughts and time.

Philip, thanks for the Pro-advice! Where do I send the 5 pounds, or would chocolate be OK? (Can you eat chocolate)?

All the best,

Mac
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www.scottsvoiceover.com - An American voice in Finland

"If you want to get to the top, you have to get off your bottom". (Unknown)

[Yonie]

Some of them could be part of bigger conglomerates, Mac. And if a majority of the client-base you market to is Scandinavian, they'll most likely know these brands.

[Lee Gordon]

By the way, as with so many other voiceover-related topics (i.e. picture or no picture on website, real client spots vs recognizable non-client spots on demos, sitting vs standing, Audition vs ProTools, if Bob Souer is only the 2nd nicest guy, who's the nicest, etc) I believe this one is subject to an awful lot of over-thinking.
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Lee Gordon, O.A.V.
Voice President of the United States
www.leegordonproductions.com
Twitter: @LeeGordonVoice

[melissa eX]

Bob, I think part of that disconnect on the term client is because as a union talent the work - technically - has always been as an "employee" so they've always been jobs. I imagine that most talent that only deal with the union are of the same mindset. It's reinforced by getting most of the work through agents , who say when, where and how much. These days - in the widening world of VO - those who don't work strictly union - work more as independent business owners - so see those who hire more as 'clients' than employers.
That said I vacillate between using the terms "client" and "work" on sites.

And I also agree with Lee and Todd. What's wrong with posting clients you've done work for that's other than national spots? I don't get why there would be something wrong with that or why an assumption would be made that it was a national spot. Unless your website says that all of your work is national TV why would someone make the leap to assume that a client list equates to a list of national spots? If you have different demos on your site - or a list of genres you work in - isn't that enough to point out that you do work other than commercials? Frankly, I do some corporate work that I think is pretty impressive - and international - though not broadcast on national TV. Why would I NOT list it?

I think anyone who assumes a client list is a list of national spots should rethink the word assume. And for us to assume that someone is assuming - well that's just too many "what ifs" to stew over. What if a piano falls on your head?

[Lizden]

I think Melissa has made a really good point, and one which many of us who do a lot of what used to be called "non-broadcast" work sometimes come up against.
The fact that it's not National Commercial work, doesn't make it less valuable to the clients who hire us, or to the potential clients who will hire us for that corporate/non-broadcast work.

And yes, I also call them clients.

If you call any Ann Taylor clothing store, the first voice you'll hear is mine.
If you call pretty much any Papa John's Pizza franchise east of the Mississippi, the first voice you'll hear is mine.

I don't do their national spots, but I am proud to have been chosen by their company to be the voice that many of their customers first hear.

If you have done work for that company, they chose you. They are a client.

That said I don't have a client list on my site. I do have a testimonials page but I don't have a client list. No real reason why, but I also don't want to give anyone in the corporate world an excuse NOT to hire me. While there is rarely an "exclusivity" or "conflicts" issue in non-broadcast, I'd hate for a potential client to say "Oh she did work for our competitor, we don't want to use her for our stuff." I may be over thinking it...but it's working for me
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Liz de Nesnera O.A.V. ~ Livin' The VO Dream!
English/French Bilingual VO w/ ISDN
HireLiz.com / liz@hireliz.com

[Scott Pollak]

[Philip Banks]

So why not a customer? Because them semantics don't make me sound like a professional AND people do not realise how important I think I AM ..DAMN THEM!!! Grand terms for people who don't know who they are but are pretty certain they're like a doctor only with bigger headphones.

We are communicators and many of us choose not to disambiguate for our own benefit. We believe we are "marketing" when in most cases, whether you like it or not we are UNmarketing. With apologies to Doug.

Your job in the information you impart is to help people make a buying decision and that means you walk away from obfuscation and herald your arrival in the world of clarity. Spinning things WILL bite you, will come back to bite and IS harming you TODAY. If you have or want a career the day to start the "Honest John" approach" is on day one.

We are not budget airlines.

"So, Mr Ryanair, I hand you £24.99 in cash and you will take me to Dublin"

"Yes!"

"Ok, here's my £24.99"

"Well ...you need to book online and pay the booking fee and the credit card fee and the taxes and guess which flight to Dublin is £24.99 and ..."

I just did some random clicking for a budget airline and just two clicks in DOUBLED the quoted fare.

Would your list of credits get you past the Homeland Security Officer at JFK? If a national newspaper journalist asked you as a VO what you'd done that his readers would know how would you reply?

"Philip, how many audiobooks have you done?"

NONE

"Philip, have you done any IVR work?"

Not sure, explain what that is.

"What was your most recent job?"

About 11pm yesterday (Sat 8th June 2013) TV promo session for CNBC (We NEVER SLEEP).

Street Signs

Weeknights at 2000cet

Closing Bell

Weeknights at 2100cet

On CNBC

Only on CNBC

First In Business Worldwide

What if you are just starting out? Everybody had to start at ZERO and everybody with a chequebook, an agency, everyone who matters to your career understands that ..If you are right for the job, you are right.

Some years ago an advertising air time salesman called me and asked if I could sing , I said that it wasn't really me. I went on to explain that West Midland Safari Park planned to run a TV ad campaign promoting the fact that there were baby elephants to visit ..hoorah!

If you've every seen the Jungle Book cartoon you will be aware of Colonel Hathi and his Elephants on Parade song. Well that's the sort of thing they wanted.

I said the production company et al that I could probably pull it off but the deal would be as follows. I come to the studio and do the session and they pay me my travel expenses only if it doesn't work out as I had never done anything like it before. They bought, we did the session and the ad campaign went to air.

[Scott Pollak]

In a nutshell, to me a customer inherently is someone who buys something from you. Perhaps only once.

A client is someone you serve, develop a professional relationship with, and often continue on in a long-term mutually beneficial working relationship.
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Scott R. Pollak
Clients include Pandora, NPR Atlanta, Wells Fargo, Cisco, Humana, Publix, UPS, AT&T, HP, Xerox and more.

www.voicebyscott.com

[Bish]

In most cases, it really doesn't matter what we call them. There's a mindset that's attached to certain words in a (sometimes) arbitrary fashion. Some of this is cultural as well. If I see the word "clientele" my mind immediately goes to, er... shall we say, the supply of services of a (ahem) personal nature. Is it a Brit thing? (OK, it's probably just me).

Philip's Ryanair example is perfect... for it matters not what Ryanair calls me internally... customer, client, travel partner, or whatever... the fact is I know they think of me as a mug, a sucker, at best a necessary evil and at worst, as stupid... this is evident in how they treat me. Actions speak louder than words.

Large corporations will often re-train staff to focus on the customers rather than their own internal processes (a common creeping malignancy in large companies). Buzz words can help. A shiny new mission statement may help: To exceed customer expectations at every opportunity. For a while (in the 70s) I worked for IBM... they even had a company song. They abandoned trying to get the Brits to take it as anything but a joke. As I say, cultural differences can come into play.

I digress... For the most part, we're solo entrepreneurs and should certainly have a company ethos, but we may not have to play psychological training tricks with the workforce.
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Bish a.k.a. Bish
Smoke me a kipper... I'll be back for breakfast.
I will not feed the trolls... I will not feed the trolls... I will not feed the trolls... I will not feed the trolls.

[Lance Blair]

I understand what Bob is saying that for union work in the big three, a job I is a job and the agency is the client.

For us non union folks in flyover country (ah, but Atlanta can't be flyover since it has the busiest airport in the world - it's FLYTHROUGH country) a client is someone you work for repeatedly and with whom you have a relationship.

That's why on my website all the listed clients are repeat customers. And yes, most of the work has been corporate, but 99% of the people that go to my site are corporate clients and so I think this works fine. They see that I can do narrations for all types of industries and markets.
_________________
Skype: globalvoiceover
and now, http://lanceblairvo.com the blog is there now too!

[Bob Bergen]

One more thing. I see nothing wrong and everything right listing the names of companies and products one has been hired to do vo work. And I don't think you need to specify what you did. Many major companies, such as McDonald's, may have a variety of ad agencies representing various markets and platforms. No need to say where, when, or how you worked for McDonald's. List McDonald's!!! You aren't being deceitful or stretching the truth by not listing exactly what you did. If ya did a local radio spot for McDonald's ya worked for McDonald's. Same goes for a corporate narration, etc. Now, if you've been the national network voice for McDonald's TV spots for several years, add that to your marketing. "McDonald's (national class A voice since 2009)" That's an important and impressive inclusion.

[Lance Blair]

Agreed Bob. I also have my CV available that is broken into categories. Commercial, Corporate, Narration, and Gaming credits with the specific title and producer/agency/production house. So I don't list anything that can't be referenced in that.
_________________
Skype: globalvoiceover
and now, http://lanceblairvo.com the blog is there now too!

[Philip Banks]

The real OH FER GOODERNUSS SAKE one is Voice Seekers. Makes me think of some other world inhabited by serene people shot in soft focus dressed in white flowing robes ..... https://soundcloud.com/philip-banks/voiceseekers