My Latest Commercial Voiceover

I’m delighted to be the voiceover for a new campaign for Best Western and their promotion of UK breaks.

Time for a break?

This surely has to be the time when UK hotel chains need to ramp up their marketing as much as possible. So many of us simply won’t feel comfortable getting on a plane just yet – even if the countries we’d like to visit are all approved.

Now I am not in the travel business, so I won’t be going into detail about the hotel industry, but I do like the message that Best Western have gone with here. They have suggested that after so much time spent looking at the same four walls, that people simply need a break.

The Audition Process

The audition for this commercial voice over called upon the voice over artist to create two characters that were very different. On the one hand, we needed a voice which was just plain dull. This voice was meant to convey the sense of things being bland, and that was the core message of this advert.

Then, there needs to be a snap into a voiceover with an abundance of energy. The temptation is to simply shout, but that’s not what’s needed here. Yes, louder volume does equal more enthusiasm, but there’s more to it than that – one has to think of themselves as ‘big’, and to go ‘all out’ behind the microphone.

Time to play

That’s an important characterisation. As an actor, it’s important that we come to play and to play fully. If I was constantly monitoring myself and wondering, “Is this big enough?” then there would be a sense of hesitation which would come through in the read, and it would not feel sincere.

It’s also so important to just trust the directors and give them what they want. This session gave me a wonderful opportunity to travel to a studio in Hammersmith that’s produced some wonderful TV and radio commercials, and after a year of mostly recording from home, this was a refreshing change.

Are Studios Safe?

All studios have wonderful Covid protocols in place. I’ve never felt nervous about visiting a studio, although I prefer to drive rather than travel on the Tube just yet – but now that I am vaccinated, I’m sure I’ll be back on the train in no time.

Thanks to Motus

So allow me to give some thanks to the wonderful people at Motus – www.motus.tv who set everything up and gave such wonderful direction. The advert is 30 seconds long but will be cut down into a series of shorter versions, so we had to record quite a few variations. I won’t lie, an hour using my ‘big voice’ in the studio was quite tiring, and I’m pleased that it was my last session of the day, because unless I was about to voice a commercial for a throat lozenge, that might have been a problem!

The advert is at the top of the page. I’m fairly sure you probably watched it before reading this, so thank you for doing that. I’m not on any commission for Best Western, but if you’re looking for a UK break, I’m just saying……