VO And Media Buying Are Arts That Converge to Ensure More Potent Campaigns

So am I a voice-over guy who happens to buy media time? Or, am I a media buyer who happens to cut V.O and narration? I honestly don't know, but I can tell you that I live comfortably everyday in both worlds. I fell into the media buying by accident 25 years ago. Like studio engineers, media buying puts me where "the action" is too.

But before I go on, here's disclosure. I have never woken up and said to myself, "Oh boy, I get to strategize and place a broadcast buy today." Unlike some of my media buying cohorts, I don't enjoy the task and all that the task entails. I merely buy media because broadcast strategy is in my bones. I have always been one of those guys who eats and sleeps broadcast. I used to wait for the Smucker's ad to play on NBC's Today Show just so I could hear Mason Adam's deliver that infamous tag line (always wondered how much money he made on that campaign), AND I have always instinctually felt sorry for the advertiser whose ad fell last in a radio stop set (I was 16). Yes, I realize I probably should have put my energy into medical school, but the fact is that these eccentricities have actually helped me develop a nice associated specialty: a pretty good voice-over guy who can strategize broadcast media. Often I dispense broadcast advice, casually and where appropriate, with ad agency people in and out of studio sessions.

I realize that the media industry accepts that a crackerjack producer/engineer can voice an ad or promo and narrate long form. Many clients appreciate that added value (the mix and VO bundled), but most industry professionals seem to scratch their heads when I tell them that I control and allocate broadcast dollars for advertisers through my own agency and even for a few smaller agencies. Yes, the ad agencies trust me since they know my true love is the art of voice-over, especially for upper-end broadcast copy and narration, especially for audio books and documentaries. Furthermore, my ad agency clients know I could never be a traditional "numbers cruncher" media buy on full time basis. I swear that I would jump... Besides, I am content to continue to sub-contract traditional numbers crunchers, then personally negotiate the buys with reps. Talking to the reps, and sometimes the station management, is where the art comes into media buying for so many reasons, but perhaps more importantly my discussions with station reps seem to build my passion for the advertiser's campaign. As I go along in my discussions, I develop what actors call a "fighting for" which permeates my reads.

After all, an actor who delivers voice-over is calling up his relevant deep seated resources and life experiences to bring perspective to his VO, while I am calling upon my deep seated resources which is often an intimate knowledge of the advertiser's objectives and what's at stake monetarily for that ad campaign. The information uniquely colors my reads, and hopefully helps separate my "reads" from other voice-over guys whether they have a engineering, radio or theater background. This is not so much the case when I am narrating audio books and documentaries.

In long form narration, I call upon other "fighting fors" to bring my unique perspective to the stories, but sometimes after the narration is complete I can put my media acumen to work for these types of clients as well. I secured the audio publisher of the last book I narrated several thousand dollars worth of broadcast time for free, air time the publisher nor any other narrator could have secured for free. As a result, I am sure the publisher sold more books, and of course got every bit as solid a performance as most other narrators could have delivered.

While VO is the art I love, there is a certain satisfaction when something I say, even in passing during a simple mic check, results in a broadcast advertiser saving more than 20k in a quarter; and the media buying is certainly profitable on those occasions where the advertiser or the advertiser's agency lets me handle a media buy (after all the bottom line is never more when I buy the media). I don't think I will ever love the broadcast buying the way I love the V.O./narration but in an industry saturated with V.O. talent, my broadcast media savvy is a nice pragmatic tool to offer my clients-if even just "talkin' shop" casually. Synergizing the two arts can only help me help my clients generate higher profits.