Promos and Imaging

These genres use some of the most classic sound you’ll find in voiceover these days, and I guarantee you the voice talent is having a huge amount of fun. Let’s define those two terms:

PROMOS

These are commercials for specific TV stations or shows. Each station has its own personality (you’ll never confuse Hallmark for Nickelodeon or The Food Network for Tru TV!). The spots tend to be a little more “performed” than a commercial for a product - they have roots in the classic Movie Trailer sound. Have you noticed movie trailers aren’t really using VO any more? The Trailer genre has moved towards telling a story purely through clips from the film. Promos are where we get to strut our stuff with a little bit of that “big voice” sound, along with plenty of drama and storytelling. There’s lots of attention to the details of pitch, tempo, how to flow the words together or insert a strategic pause, and fine-tuning emphasis.

Imaging

Imaging is specific to radio stations - “terrestrial” stations (those broadcast over the air) and "virtual” or “streaming” stations (Pandora, etc.). It’s the voice that purrs out the station ID, gives just the right attitude to tag lines, and sometimes works as a “virtual DJ” to announce individual songs. This is where we get to pretend we’re much MUCH cooler than we are in real life. Recording song tags for The Beat Radio is my favorite gig each week.