Why do you need a Voice Reel?

We’ve touched on why you might need a voice reel HERE, but to further expand on some of those points we’ve broken them down below.

The voiceover marketplace

Brands and advertisers know that the human voice is a powerful tool in connecting their product to their audience. There are whole industries based around defining and understanding audiences and how to reach them – we’ve all seen Mad Men!

It won’t be surprising for you then that part of almost all digital ad campaigns, in every industry (from food & drink, to travel & entertainment, to finance & tech, etc), involves strategies that put a human voice front and centre.

To give you an example, podcasts. Podcasts can provide a direct line between business and consumer – literally the voice of the brand in the ear of the listener. In the UK alone 10.1 million users listen to podcasts each week with an average listening time of 7 hours per person. And yet Live Radio almost quadruples this number (2023).

The audiobook industry continues to boom, as do video games, and animated TV series and films are still alive and kicking. Moreover, companies, organisations and institutions are incorporating audio and video to convey ideas and messages internally, rather than simply relying on memos and powerpoint presentations.

In short, there is an astonishingly large marketplace for audio and voiceover and it’s only getting bigger.

Voiceover clients

With huge resources ploughed into advertising, marketing campaigns and productions, it quickly becomes a cross-discipline enterprise launching new content, products and material. From a corporate structure point of view, you have everyone involved from finance, legal, to comms, all the way through to insurance. If a company is going to invest hundreds of thousands on a project, they will want to be sure they’re poised to make the greatest impact possible and reap the biggest rewards they can.

As a matter of due-diligence it makes sense for any digital marketing strategists involved with a campaign to engage the services of specialist organisations that represent the individual talent that make the vision the reality. That’s where voiceover agents come in.

Voiceover Agents

Voiceover agents or agencies are individuals or teams of people who oversee a portfolio of talent of all ages, genders, nationalities, and more. They manage and maintain a catalogue of actors whose voices are appropriate for every potential opportunity.

Like any industry, the voice industry is tough to break into with a variety of different gatekeepers at every level. Voiceover agents are the first gatekeepers. They are the middlemen between your work as a voice actor and the commercial/corporate/artistic clients who need your voice. We put together a whole chapter on everything you need to know about finding an agent along with an email template to help you send out your reel in our Create Your Own Voice Reel Ebook. You can download it HERE.

Because of their position, voice agents receive numerous submissions to join their rosters every week. We live in a time where there is no end to the demand for voice actors. And there is certainly no shortage of supply.

Despite what it looks like on the surface, we firmly believe that it’s worth your time to put yourself out there. The marketplace changes. Demand for a particular voice type rises and falls and rises again. There is inherent value in your unique voice. And you know what they say? You miss 100% of the opportunities you don’t take.

That’s why you need a voice reel. Not only that, you need a GREAT voice reel. You need a voice reel that you can reliably count on, so when you send it to voice agents you can reliably say ‘this reel proudly demonstrates the value of my voice’. You can be safe in the knowledge that you can calmly and confidently keep going back to your voiceover connections to say ‘Hi, I exist, and here’s my incredible voice reel’.

The only question you might have now is, how do I make a voice reel!?

Well, you can absolutely hire us to make your reel. We’d be delighted. Check out the types of reels we offer HERE. Or, if money is tight and you’d like to DIY, we’ve created an Ebook that walks you through the process of creating your own Commercial Voiceover Reel, from start to finish. Learn more and order it HERE.