Sound Off On Sound – Automotive
Automotive Voiceover
Like the cornucopia of car options available to buyers today, there is a huge variety of applications for voiceover in the automotive industry. Buckle up, and let’s take a road trip through some of them.
Automotive Advertising (Car Commercials)
The levels of advertising in the automotive industry are almost as extensive as an after-market parts catalog for a Jeep Wrangler.
As far as the media used, dealers and Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) run commercials on radio, television, cable, social media, pre-roll, websites, product placements, event sponsorships and mobile advertising. Then, there are the tiers behind the advertising used on those platforms. There are creative, marketing and advertising agencies that specialize in each of these tiers. When used together, these three Tiers are incredibly effective.
- Tier One Automotive Marketing: OEM, Manufacturer
- Tier Two Automotive Marketing: Regional Associations
- Tier Three Automotive Marketing: Retail, Dealer
Tier One
Understandably, the biggest automotive marketing budget lives with the Original Equipment Manufacturer. An OEM is funding brand awareness with both existing brands and new model launches. OEM advertising dollars fund broadcast commercials on radio, television, social and pre-roll as well as creating product placement opportunities in films and sponsoring major events attended and followed by their target audiences.
“Manufacturers and their agencies must do more than just showcase their incredible products. They need to ensure these ad dollars are used to elicit emotions from potential consumers and create a visceral connection to their brand.”
-Adam Stone, Octane Marketing
I love the brand storytelling I’ve been able to do by voicing national ads for automotive marketing agencies representing brands like Audi. My favorite was a radio commercial I did as the voice of a poinsettia plant complaining about being neglected by her human who had just purchased a new Audi A4.
LEXUS LS NATIONAL RADIO: This luxury car radio ad was voiced for a very specific target audience of C-Suite leaders.
KB4JEEP
One of the craziest marketing efforts I ever did for my voiceover business was creating and executing an entire marketing campaign pitching my voice to Jeep (Stellantis) creatives and their agency. The reasoning behind the KB4Jeep campaign was that brand storytelling is most effective when voiced by one of their own. According to my daughter, I was a content creator before UGC (User Generated Content) became a thing. If you want to see just how crazy it all was, click on the button below.
Tier Two
In certain regional market areas, some dealers will join forces and collectively fund marketing efforts supplemented with OEM dollars. The purpose of these efforts is to highlight regional promotions and drive customers into the dealerships.
The platforms used by these regional dealer associations include Out of Home (OOH), television and radio commercials, digital ads and regional event sponsorships. Sometimes the advertising agencies behind Tier 2 creative are the same as those who produce the Tier 1 marketing efforts. There are also automotive marketing agencies that specialize in Tier 2 advertising.
For years, I’ve voiced Pandora ads for Midwest Chevy dealers in my home state of Michigan. Each ad spotlights a particular vehicle and its major selling points, promotes a limited time sales event or shouts out an award.
FORD FUSION: This television ad for a particular model of car is an example of a Tier2 commercial where dealers in a certain region got together to promote a model of car they were all selling supplemented with OEM dollars.
Tier Three
I’m sure I’m violating some secret VO society rule, but Tier 3 ads have sometimes been called Screamers, Rip-and-Reads and See-and-Says in voice-over circles.
Many dealerships use high-energy voiceover or a shouting on-air personality — many times the dealer owner or general manager. The media outlet most often used was the newspaper where dealerships would have a page full of vehicles available on their lots. They also used local radio stations, television affiliates and cable broadcast channels and some OOH. Now, many dealerships are leveraging the hyper-targeted marketing found in digital marketing on platforms like Pandora, social media, YouTube and mobile.
Individual dealers often have an in-house marketing team or will use a local creative agency to place media buys. Another common practice in Tier 3 marketing is to have the media outlets’ personnel write and produce the commercials.
Not long ago, I partnered with the Southeast’s largest Jeep Wrangler dealer, Ed Voyles Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram’s General Manager, Drew Tutton, on a series of social media videos I created called Quick Car Tips. Together, we covered topics most average car owners encounter.
When I was new to voiceover, I worked with a local dealership, Acura and Volvo of Athens for years voicing their radio advertising. After getting to know the owner, who wrote his own copy (which was great), I even voiced some commercials in trade for a kayak rack for my then “Mom Car.” He was also behind the one ad I’ve ever had removed from air. Several elderly women complained to the local radio station that the ad promoting “going topless” in a new convertible Volvo was “too racy.”
MY FAVORITE CAR COMMERCIAL EVER: My voice on this Tier 3 spot was a deadpan counterpoint to famous WWE Wrestler Ric Flair-Naturboy’s wild and wacky parody of a car dealer commercial.
QUICK CAR TIPS: Here is one of the videos from a series that I created for social media that covered topics most average car owners encounter.
On Camera Car Commercials
My first on-camera automotive adventure was for a Chevrolet dealership in Athens, Georgia where I was a student at UGA and worked as an on-air talent at a local television station. On one of our shoots they wanted me to get into a Geo Storm and drive off. The problem was I couldn’t drive a stick shift (FYI I love driving standard shift now). The dealer hopped in and set it up so that I just had to get in, release the emergency brake, and roll the pinkish-purplish Geo Storm down the car lot’s hill.
Later, also while in college at the University of Georgia, I was hired by a guy named Bubba (Yep, that was his real name). I was booked to walk around King Ford in Alabama with a giant crown on my head pointing at cars and acting ecstatic over their low, low pricing.
In Car Voice
Capgemini Research Institute published a report saying 95% of consumers will use in-car conversational assistants by 2022.
Early Years of On Board VO
The first voices heard inside the vehicle were talking at drivers and passengers rather than interacting with them.
When I was a teenager, my stepdad brought home the first “talking” car I’d ever encountered, a Nissan Maxima. The car voice would tell us to put our seatbelts on or let us know when the door was opened. We thought that was the coolest thing since KITT, the talking car from Knight Rider. Dad loved that car and put almost 400,000 miles on it before selling it.
When We Began Engaging With Our On-Board Assistants
My stepfather loved cars and tech, so he bought one of the first portable GPS units from Garmin. He took “Gloria” with him everywhere and she firmly directed him exactly where to go to get to his destination, though my mom continued to say she knew more about driving directions than Gloria ever could.
Eventually OEM’s figured out they could outfit their vehicles with their own in-car assistants. Vehicle owners had to memorize a scripted list of commands to make their personal talking cars do their bidding.
Ironically, it seems these early AI’s were not programmed to recognize commands spoken with the clear diction of trained voice-over talents. Family members of voice talents thought it was hilarious. We had many chats at VO conventions about our own cars not understanding us. Later, I learned speech recognition of in-vehicle assistants was an issue with many people, not just those of us who speak for a living, but it remains the butt of many jokes.
Familiar Voices
Now, with more mainstream OEM’s equipping vehicles with Apple Car Play and Android Auto, drivers are using the same AI Assistants they use at home and on their phones. Amazon has released Echo Auto. I personally love having my UK accented Siri read aloud my texts or telling me where to turn next.
While having access to a familiar voice assistant or one embedded in the vehicle is fast becoming a demand of new car buyers, there is still a trust issue. Microsoft found that 52% of voice assistant users have concerns about data and personal information security.
What are drivers using in vehicle assistants for while in the car? The Capgemini report states 45% use it for niche services like ordering food, 46% use it to book vehicle service appointments and 77% use it for navigation and entertainment.
According to SoundHound Inc., here are the top 5 ways drivers are using their vehicle user interface voice assistants:
- Playing Music and Checking Directions
- Integrating with At-Home Devices
- Booking Appointments
- Voice Search and Voice Ordering
- Booking Travel
Automotive VO
No matter the advertising tier, the majority of automotive commercials have some voiceover involved. So, do you choose a male or female voice?
Veritonic did a study and concluded, “Auto dealer association AM/FM radio ads voiced by women were some of the best testing creative among both men and women.“
Easy to Book Your VO Project
Work directly with me or through any of my agents.
I also have a handy dandy booking calendar where you can look at my availability and book time for your session.
