A while back, as we were sitting here kicking around ideas about the up-and-coming voice over database, we got a little curious and went searching for voice talent. But not just any old voice talent. We went looking for well branded voice talent. All too often when you go digging around looking for a new voice you come across page after page that states, “I’m the greatest thing since sliced voice talent and I’m good at everything you could possible want to hire me for!” which we know to be mere self promotion, and more frequently then not, quite a false representation of the truth.
As we were looking, I remembered Caryn Clark and how impressed I was with her web page and her branding. It struck me as one of the few web pages I had come across in recent searches, that actually matched the talent it was promoting. I recommended we give her page another look and we came to a unanimous conclusion: Caryn Clark is a well branded voice talent. And I’m going to tell you why.
I don’t think it’s easy to be a well branded voice over talent. Sure, we can brand ourselves easily enough from a visual perspective. I can post a picture that always appears every time my name does, and if my name appears enough and the image is catchy enough, people will eventually begin to associate the image with my name an vice-versa. Corporations pay millions if not billions of dollars for this to happen in the mind of consumers and sometimes it works and at others, it doesn’t.
When I read the name Google in a news article, I can see their web page – which to all of us is the brand we know them by. At least we know a knock-off of it if we see someone trying to use a similar type-face and font. You can’t go anywhere but the moon and not find someone who doesn’t know what the Nike swoosh looks like. Branding takes an even more interesting turn when audio gets tossed into the picture. I can still see the blue, metal Maxwell House can with white lettering in my head whenever I hear the ever present tempo of the “boopie-doopie-doop-boop – bedoopie-doop-boop” jingle, which was famously, visually synchronized in a film of the glass view-port of a coffee percolator.
It’s a near Pavlovian response. I hear a simple jingle and an image pops into my head. You can’t get it any better than that. For those of you who don’t know what a coffee percolator is, or long for the old days when commercial advertising was so much more simple, the commercial campaign I’m referencing can be found here. All you voice over people should pay really close attention to the forefathers and fore-mothers of our industry who voice the commercials.
I say commercials because there is another one here that is a tandem, and is almost painful in it’s cuing and pacing. Pay close attention to the actors eyes at the end when he’s half-hidden behind the cup to see what I’m talking about. They are both certainly fantastic examples of the wildly dramatic style difference between commercial advertising then and the type of things audiences respond to today. That point aside, imagine how you would feel if you saw the Nike swoosh on a gift box under the Christmas tree, and when you opened it you found a set of orthodontic tools… You’d be pretty damn confused and disappointed, right?
Well the same thing happens when you go looking for voice talent and you come across a listing that says “National Radio Imaging Voice Over – 25 Years in the Business” and when you listen to their demo you get the same feeling in your stomach that you would if you were listening to a Will Smith album after he had decided he’d be better off doing gangster rap. It would be a total departure from everything he is branded as being and you wouldn’t believe the words that were coming out of his mouth, no matter how hard he tried to sell them.
Enter, Caryn Clark. One of the few talent you will come across where almost every element of her branding matches what you will find when you listen to her demos. The site is titled, “The Hip Chick Voice”, the word hip appears on the site more than once, there’s a dancing baby chicken in her logo that looks like a hip little chick and overall, on just the title alone, when you go to her site and soak in the branding in total it all fits. Then you listen to her commercial reel and by golly, she sounds like a hip young chick too!
On just those merits alone, if I wanted a young sounding female talent for my youth oriented project who was fresh, vibrant, demonstrated the ability to carry my script believably and possibly had some appeal in the youth market sound, I would not be at all upset if I landed on her website and took the time out of my day to listen to her demo. The reason this happens to be this way is that under those criteria she fits the bill as a potential casting candidate, is properly branded as such and there isn’t a thing out of place. Never mind the fact Caryn currently has seven Hannah Montana product commercials, and other toy commercials, running on the Disney Channel.
If she were branded as “authoritative, seductive, smokey, deep and sexy” not only would I not have found her web site because she wouldn’t have shown up in the search results, if she were branded that way I’d be pretty disappointed when I went to the site and took a listen because that isn’t her sound. It would be an inappropriate brand for her skill set and who she is as a talent. That’s not meant to be negative. When it comes to voice casting decisions, you’re either right or wrong. Seldom does it escalate to whether a person is good or bad, but people will certainly remember you for being either.
I simply like the fact that she is bold enough to find a niche, target it, brand herself into that niche and make what would appear to be several very conscious decisions to pursue that niche adamantly. She’s just redesigned her web site and that would have been the right time to abandon the niche if it wasn’t working, but it is working so she didn’t. I applaud her for sticking with something that so conveniently and correctly ties up her capabilities and target market in such a nice, neat, well represented and honest package. She says who she is, what she does and what she’s good at, and her words aren’t misleading. When you listen to her specialty she appears to have it down pat.
So I decided to write her and ask her a few softballs… Here’s what she had to say.
Tell us about your time in VO… What got you started?
“One of my older brothers was visiting me in 1994, when I was living in NYC after just graduating college. I had gone through high school and college doing lots of singing, but now that I was on my own, without an official chorus/show choir type group to belong to like those in school, I was wondering how I could use my voice. My brother suggested voice over. I had no idea what it was. He told me, and I thought that it sounded pretty cool.
I found a coach in NYC, took classes, made a demo, and then… the cassette tapes and the old Ross Reports booklet sat in a box for 11 years as I was working in the financial industry. In 2005, I decided to dig out my demo, and see about actually working as a voice over talent. “
Any experience in acting?
“Before 1994 – not really, unless you count playing Glenda the Good Witch of the North in my 8th grade production of “The Wizard of Oz.” I come from a very dramatic family though. I could write a book about the drama a few of my family members cause. LOL.
I say that somewhat jokingly, but it’s those crazy and sometimes unfortunate experiences that afford me the ability to bring certain emotions and feelings to the table when doing voice over.
Since 2005, yes. I have, and continue to take, acting and scene study classes whenever I can, and I read books on various methods of acting, as well as every voice over book I can get my hands on!”
Who were your voice over coaches, or coach?
“My first coach in 1994 was Robert Allan-Arno. I took months of classes with him. Since then, I’ve studied with Randy Thomas, Peter Rofe’, and I currently study with Marice Tobias. Randy is my mentor – I couldn’t ask for a better role model. She’s wonderful.”
What made you decide on getting coaching? Did you get coaching before or after you had started in the craft?
“I sought coaching LONG before I started in the craft. And, I still do. There will likely never be a time when I don’t have a coach.”
How did you learn about the equipment needed? The editing skills required?
“I’m really fortunate that little ol’ Southwest Florida has a hotbed of national voice over talent with Randy Thomas, Brian Lee, Peter Thomas Sr., Chris Corley, and many other vos living nearby. Before I had my home studio, when I landed a gig, I would rent studio time at Brian’s studio, Sky Audio. When it came time to put in my own studio, Brian kindly listed every bit of equipment I needed to purchase, and when it came time to hook it up, he spent many hours with me teaching me, the absolute novice, how to put it all together.
As for the editing skills… that’s self taught. I use ProTools. It was easy to learn. My mentor Randy Thomas has been wonderful in showing me some handy shortcuts, etc. that I likely would never have figured out myself.”
What was your best source for marketing information and or inspiration?
“Hmmm… well, I was in the marketing field in the financial industry before I decided to to voice over full time. Financial marketing is pretty dull and not very creative (thus I left the industry), but from that experience, I definitely understand the importance of branding.”
Who played the biggest part in finding such a niche category for you to brand yourself under? Were you solely responsible for the idea – or did and agent or mentor have a hand in it?
“I was solely responsible for the idea.
What led you to the “Hip-Chick” branding message? Was it just an idea out of the air or did you see some sort of pattern in what you were being hired for that led you to settle on that?
When I was creating my LLC, I was going to be C2 or C-Squared Productions, but my lawyer discovered that moniker was taken in the state of Florida by Chris Corley (who, ironically, is a vo and lives near me… what are the odds?).
I did some thinking. I use the term “chick” a lot – call my girlfriends “chick” (I say things like “she’s a cool chick” and phrases like that). And, I thought, what am I selling? My voice. So, I came up with VoiceChick Productions LLC. That’s the name of my company.
I was going to run with that idea and use it in my branding, but Randy reminded me, I am in the business of marketing ME and that I needed to include my name in there somewhere. So, I knew I wanted to use the words “voice”, “chick” and my name, Caryn Clark (which, is real, btw. I’ve been asked if it’s a stage name. Clark is my married name, and I just lucked out that my parents spelled my first name unusually).
I’d like to note here that I had previously done some research of other voice overs’ marketing. I did this for a couple of reasons – 1) to see what people were doing and become inspired and 2) to see what people were doing so that I didn’t copy an idea.
One site I really liked was that of Sydney Rainin (www.itsrainin.com). I don’t know Ms. Rainin, but I love her marketing. On her site, she has examples of her marketing postcards. Ms. Rainin has very attractive, sexy, chic girl, with an umbrella, walking along a city sidewalk. In her marketing postcards, depending on the gig, the girl is doing different things. To me, her marketing is hands down some of the best Ive seen.
I knew I too wanted a character that I could use in my marketing like she does.
I thought back to my marketing experience. I used to work for an insurance company that had a very catchy tag line of just four words. I made a list of adjectives that had been used to describe my voice, and that I used myself in voice descriptions. Fresh, bright, hip, fun, playful, real…. wait!!!
HIP!
And, I’m a…. CHICK!!!
And, what is it I’m describing? My VOICE!!!!
Thus, Caryn Clark… The Hip Chick Voice! was born.
The tune “Hippy Chick” kept running through my mind. But, I didn’t want to go with just the hippy or 60s theme…. I thought it to be too narrow. So, I thought, “What could my character be?” and suddenly, it hit me… a hip chick!! My voice isn’t necessarily seductive or sexy (I do spots like that, but it’s not my signature), and there are lots of people using animated girls in their branding, so using a girl wouldn’t really make me stand out. It occured to me that a cute little yellow chick would be great… cause my sound is cute, and hip… the chick could be hip, with sunglasses, lipstick, some cool shoes… and thus, she was born… or uh, hatched!!”
So there you have it. Caryn Clark has hatched a hip baby chicken – or chick!
I think it works. I think it’s an impressive branding package and I think what she has put together is a great model to study when it comes to making sure our imaging and our branding matches what the client will hear when they make a trip by our web site or hear us in an audition. Congrats on the new web site Caryn! Keep up the good work, keep being “The Hip Chick Voice” and thank you for playing ball over on my side of town with the interview.
MM
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