The Client Commercial Read

Clients reading their own commercials. Or an inexperienced person reading commercials.
Mr Client had a voiceover session and had minimal time to prepare and execute. It was a mess.
I was asked to clarify some procedures for client read commercials, and like my post on getting the best read from a client, or person who doesn’t do this for a living, this is the way I like to see things happen.
It’s been a request from producers for a long while that we get the script(s) well in advance of the client voicing a commercial, a familiarisation just helps when we go into the session. But in light our of Mr Client, he was in on Friday, cold on the script and read, then we had a task ahead of us getting the read as good as possible. Whereas for the session after the weekend, and a few more practice reads in that time, the result from the session on Monday was much better.
So the extra time to absorb the script before they got in here was the difference. You should insist upon:-
Client getting the script 24hrs (the same as production) in advance of the session and seriously encouraged the client to practice reading it (them) after all the reason the client is doing the ad and not a pro reader are many, but bottom line, the client needs to sound the same, be the same on the commercial as the listener sees & meets in the store.
The trick is to put them at ease, tell them not to be posh, talk down to the listener or sound like they think an announcer sounds. Just be a real person, we need the genuine G’day or Hi, it is so important. First impressions of his store or business when a customer calls is very important. It is actually more important on a radio commercial because, by its nature, is the PRE-First Impression of his business.
The Script: One major point we miss out on, is emphasising to our clients is that Creative writers craft the words, in their style, so when it comes to reading the script, the phrasing might not be the same as the client may like. The client needs to know that the phrasing etc, is a thing they know best and we’ll trust them to make it sound natural
The other point is that a natural read needs to be just that, natural. To be believable by the listener, leading listeners to buy the product or service, that leads to more advertising $ for us and so on…
To have all this placed on the shoulders of anyone, 2 mins before they stand up, in a strange room, with a strange person (or 2), in front of a very odd looking microphone with a round thing in front of it (sure they have seen one before in the We are the World video clip) and then pile on to that all the advice, direction & STRESS!!
For Mr Client here as a case in point, the result of the second voice session after this preparation was light years better than the first.
Better results come from being prepared. Prepare the client and get better results. For the client reading the commercial just as important for them as the final parts of securing that important sale!
Hope this helps a little