Finding really good voice over actors for video or audio often costs time. Booking.com and toy company, BOTI, found a quicker solution with Voicebooking.com.
Online Travel agency Booking.com produces hundreds of videos a year, from ad-spots for TV, to videos for YouTube and Instagram. “We have our own team of producers which is responsible for making all commercial content”, says Carine van der Heijden, Head of Productions and Operations.
“When I first started we let the big ad-agencies take care of almost everything, but that wasn’t really sustainable. We wanted quicker turnaround times and to be more closely involved in the process. That’s why we now take care of things in-house and hire in directors, camera operators, and creatives as necessary.”
With the current set-up Booking.com was able to produce videos much quicker but localising all that content was still costing a lot of time. If you’re running a global booking platform, it is nearly impossible to avoid dubbing your videos. Whether we’re talking complete commercials, or one YouTube video, there are only a handful of countries in the world where you can still get away with just using subtitles. You almost always need voice-overs.
Until a few years ago, hiring-in voice actors for voice-overs was incredibly time-consuming, Carine explained: “It often meant a long search for a local voice via one of the translation department’s many Language Specialists. Once the right voice had been found for the script then, more often than not, the same specialist had to organise a studio to record in on the spot.”
Next the finished audio would be sent to headquarters in Amsterdam to be listened to and approved, and if it isn’t approved it’s back into the studio to try again. A laborious process, especially when you have to go through it 15 times in different languages.
Voicebooking, a fast-growing online voice over platform based in Amsterdam, offered the solution. “They do not only just have a database of professional voice-over actors in more than 90 languages, they also provide advice about voice type, translation, audio mixing, and work with clients to get a script voice-over-ready.
And it’s really fast. You organise everything yourself on the online platform (or have it done for you) and within one working day (sometimes even in a matter of hours), you have the audio in hand, in just the right tone of voice and the right accent.”
Radio ads
It’s not just companies that produce a lot of video who lose a lot of time hiring voice actors and localising their content. Those making radio ads, podcasts and managing music streaming services run into similar problems too.
Whoever uses the free version of music streaming service Spotify, will hear ad-spots. There are enough advertisers interested, including plenty of A-brands, but they often run into practical problems. It is not often that they have a ‘clickable’ spot ready to roll which is suitable for the Spotify system.
Spotify and Voicebooking first thought of the solution to this ten years ago now. Since then, Voicebooking annually produces dozens of commercials for the streaming platform’s advertisers. The advertisers deliver a script and within just 1 or 2 days the complete commercial is ready.
The Voice of K’NEX
Larissa Louwman, Marketing Brand & Development Manager of toy company K’NEX and BOTI, has been a client from the very start, right back when Voicebooking was still just a small startup. “We develop our own toys and sell third party brands like Pokémon and K’NEX. Jente (CEO Voicebooking, red.) has been the Dutch voice of the K’NEX commercials for years. Over the years we worked with them more and more. Now, we might deliver an American commercial, for example, and Voicebooking delivers us a German and French version, complete with customised packshots.”
For Larissa the most important reason to work with Voicebooking is that she has the feeling that, despite the company’s growth, the service is still just as personal: “Never arrogant. They listen and now know exactly the kind of voice I want for a brand like Pokémon. Often they will also come with suggestions for ‘voice-technical’ improvements in a script. And, if I want, I can always listen along with the live recordings too.”
Liza Rietvelt, one of the producers at Booking.com, finds it a huge benefit that she can listen along. “Very often I sit in the studio in Amsterdam next to the audio technician while the voice over actor records at home or sits somewhere else in another studio recording the text. In this way we can make adjustments very quickly and make sure that the tone of voice matches our brand strategy.
Sometimes, for example, we record a script with both a male voice over and female voice over actor so that we can do A-B testing. The Language Specialist will always listen along too. It may be that during the recording you find that the Russian version of a text is much longer than the original. In that case you may need to adjust a script at the last minute. To make a good voice-over you sometimes need to puzzle it out a bit.”
The market of voice over actors with a home studio has exploded over the last couple of years, making it hard to separate the wheat from the chaff. You just need to hope that the voice over actor has good equipment at home and that the final recording will sound just as good as their polished demo.
Find just the right voice in a language which you don’t speak yourself. “Every country has its own tone and sound”, says Liza from Booking.com. The critical gaze of a specialist who listens to you closely, is really valuable then. Larissa from BOTI: “Thinking and moving with you. That’s Voicebooking’s strength.”
