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Why do we hear so little about branded audio fiction? Factual branded podcasts, especially made for companies and organisations, dominate the market, but branded audio fiction far less. So could taking the bigger risk lead to greater rewards?

Like a lot of people I went to see Barbie – and came out considering it a masterclass in using drama to enhance your brand. It clearly worked; Barbie has grossed more than $1 billion at the global box office and is the first do so with a female director, Greta Gerwig. You go girl, etc.

Despite the phenomenal results, it’s insanely tricky to get right. Mattel must be giving themselves arm ache with all the congratulatory back-slapping. Because there’s a lot to balance.

Firstly, the brand must have the kind of values and that can believably work in a fictional context (yes, I know, Barbie?! Bear with me). A fracking company doing a heartfelt story about children saving the rainforest? Erm, unlikely. Cue mass scepticism.

People of a certain generation will remember the Renault Clio commercials featuring Papa and Nicole. Fictional characters with an ongoing family narrative within a series of commercials that ran for six years. It was apparently the most popular car advertisement in history and made Renault one of the “most persuasive advertiser(s) in five European countries in 1994.”

And they did it with a relateable story.

The audience has to buy into it

That’s the case with any story, but audiences know full well when they’re being sold to. Products shown or referenced within TV programmes are regulated or monitored. Undue prominence is distracting. Barbie, fundamentally, is one huge infomercial. But we know that. Of course we know that! Barbie knows that, and Mattel, both onscreen and off, know it too. With Barbie, because we’re all in on the joke, we don’t care.

The people behind the brand have to be comfortable taking a back seat

While Mattel featured heavily in the film, it wasn’t really their story. I hesitate to call them brave – it’s actually quite a cynical decision – but letting themselves be seen as a chauvinistic corporate entity was very smart. See above. Don’t play the audience for fools.

Trust the people who are making your podcast

Of course there’s got to be some pretty thorough back and forth about expectations, story, production… But once that’s done, let the team get on with it. If everyone is briefed properly and communication is clear, problems and misunderstandings should be minimal. However brands with no experience of creative production tend towards opposite extremes. They either completely disappear and become impossible to get hold of, or need to be involved with every detail, demanding multiple changes and insisting on feedback from seventeen different people across the company. And they will ALL have an opinion.

The answer of course, is as always, somewhere in the middle. But ultimately, it’s about trust.

Reputation

Another sticking point is how the brand might want to be perceived. Are there any negatives in the company’s current perception that could be addressed as part of the drama podcast? It’s a brave brand that hands over significant marketing cash – and then steps back. But if a brand IS brave enough to do that – is secure enough in its identity, its audience, its messaging and potentially what it wants from this, just think what could be achieved. An increase in interest in the product, for starters. An improved reputation maybe, or perhaps – the marketer’s dream, new customers. The subject of the drama should have synergy with the brand – but not be about the brand itself.

But moving on to my real question: Why doesn’t audio do this? Of all the branded podcasts out there – why are so few branded audio fiction?

I’ve been extolling the virtues of branded audio fiction for some time, but it’s not new – there’s just not very much of it about. In 2017, Land Rover created The Discovery Adventures, a binaural podcast which combined fact and fiction to encourage families on trips in their car, to experience places via the series. It won awards. It was very good.

There are plenty of branded podcasts. But few companies seem brave enough to want to try branded audio fiction podcasts. In all fairness, a high-quality audio fiction series would need a significantly bigger budget than a round table chat in a studio once a week with guests talking about your brand.

But wouldn’t drama be more interesting? What genres might fit your brand? Scifi? Mystery? Crime? A soap opera? Does your brand have a real origin story than can be called upon as a starting point for something more? Jack Daniels has used its history and people for years to market their whiskey.

Audible’s announcement today that it has partnered with Nickelodeon to make a companion podcast to its 90s horror kids anthology series Are You Afraid of the Dark? is another step towards branded audio fiction. True, it’s two organisations with a track record in creating content already, but interest is being piqued.

Branded audio fiction podcasts won’t suit every company. It seems to work best for lifestyle products and groceries and I suspect that will be the entry level to begin with. But with intelligent storytelling, great writing, amazing sound design, music and savvy audio producers, you could end up with a bespoke audio fiction podcast for your brand, available worldwide, that’s worth a fortune.  Hellooooo, Barbie’s one billion dollars.

And for a fraction of the cost of your TV advertising budget.

Back to About Me

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Brand new audio drama Theatre of the Damned is now available to buy and download from new platform Audioteria, intended to be a purchase platform primarily for independent drama and enhanced audiobooks and I’m thrilled it’s now out in the world.

Theatre of the Damned is a B7 Media co-production with indie theatre company Metal Rabbit. It’s planned as a series, but we wanted to make sure it worked as a standalone story in its own right as well as serving as a proof of concept.

Set in the grim and gaudy Paris of the 1920s, Theatre of the Damned draws inspiration from the real-life Theatre du Grand Guignol. It explores the blood-curdling depths to which struggling immigrant theatre producer, Camille Choisy (Amir El-Masry), penniless Parisian playwright, Andre De Lorde (Sam Crane) and aspiring actress, Paula Maxa (Kelly Burke), will stoop in order to satiate their audience’s blood-thirsty appetite and gain Faustian profits.

I always knew this was going to be a fun one. During the first Covid lockdown, we ran a series of online table reads; partly for fun and to keep us and the actors we knew busy, but also to try out some scripts we’d had on the shelf for a while as well as hear potential new scripts like Theatre of the Damned.

Unusually for an audio drama, and as a result of having a theatre company as our partner, we had the luxury of a rehearsal day, which was a great opportunity for the cast to meet and work with each other before heading into the studio.

Mics! Script! …Acton!

Theatre of the Damned was recorded over two days with the lovely people at The SoundHouse in Acton, where we had a lot of grisly fun. The second day held a surprise: our Production Assistant casually mentioned that there was a young bird caged under the wastepaper basket in the corner of the studio. One of our actors with a gift for animal whispering had rescued it outside and decided to look after it between his scenes. Given the themes of the script, it fortunately survived till lunchtime, when it was released outside to loiter by the picnic tables looking for crumbs.

The extra – temporary – cast member

So, into the studio where we staged fights, “bad” acting, eating fingers, executions, vomiting and screaming. Lots of screaming. (None of it related to discovering a bird under the wastepaper basket.) I even provided some blood-curdling screaming of my own.

Theatre of the Damned is available now and contains scenes of gore, horror and strong language – not for one while eating lunch!

Head to Audioteria to buy and download. The site is paired with its own app where you can keep all your Audioteria content – or you can play on whatever device you prefer.

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There are very few opportunities to enter promos and trails for recognition in the UK, so when I stumbled over the submission information for the Promax North America‘s awards on the last day, it was clearly a sign.

My entry was somewhat thrown together late on deadline day I admit, but it still managed to grab a nomination.

I genuinely didn’t think it would make it any further than that – Up against CNN and a Disney+ promo?! Not a chance. But I’ll take making it into the top three in these circumstances…

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Two other audio dramas I produced this year made their debut on BBC Radio 4 in November 2021 and February 2022 respectively; Barred, a legal drama based on the experiences of female black barrister Thandi Lubimbi and Mahabharata Now, a two part modern adaptation of one of the stories in India’s epic poem, The Mahabharata.

Barred was recorded in June 2021 at the height of one of the Covid pandemic’s peaks, resulting in the loss of a lead cast member with just 48 hours notice and several other cast due to illness or being required to isolate.

Mahabharata Now was recorded entirely in Mumbai over four days. The Director and UK producers dialled into the Mumbai studio from the UK via Zoom (my alarm went off every day at 3:20am!) which was tough on the body clock, but the advancements in communications technology are so incredible, that we only lost connection once. It was almost – almost – like being there in person!

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What’s better than DAB? DAB+ of course!

For the last year, I’ve been put in charge of mixing and mastering Digital Radio UK‘s radio commercial campaigns heard across all the UK’s commercial radio stations.

Working with Fresh Air Production, I’d liaise with the Producers by preparing and mocking up the sessions, then mixing in the VO once recorded and delivering the various versions.

The commercials are airing through Summer 2021.

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The UK’s first radio soap since Waggoner’s Walk ended in 1980 and the BBC World Service soap Westway which ended in 2005, Greenborne made its debut on 21st March 2021 across the UK via a network of fifty community radio stations.

Supported by the Audio Content Fund, Greenborne is a B7 Media production devised by Colin Brake (Writer) and Andrew Mark Sewell (Director). Helen is the Series Producer.

Greenborne is now available as a podcast via Acast. You can subscribe here.

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I spend a lot of time talking to myself and listening to my own voice, so it’s safe to say I’ve got used to how it sounds, but many people HATE hearing their own voice. There’s a reason for that:

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/jul/12/the-real-reason-the-sound-of-your-own-voice-makes-you-cringe

However, voiceover artists have to like how they sound. Or at the very least be comfortable enough listening to and critiquing their own voice. When people find out what I do, they usually ask for an example – so I switch on “the voice” and announce “cashier number 4 please” or “unexpected item in the bagging area” and they fall about laughing. If only they did that at the supermarket. It would make shopping a lot more fun. And what about that new announcement at a supermarket that shall remain anonymous? “Surprising item in the bagging area.” I daren’t ask.

For the record, I’ve never voiced any checkout self-service machine announcements – yet. But you may well hear my voice on-hold. Unfortunately, I can’t say where!

I don’t really do the Big Sell. My voiceover style is more subtle, understated or knowing. Cool, indifferent car commercials. Sultry high-end jewellery promos or real estate videos.

Different voices suit different tasks. As I say, you’ll hear me a lot on-hold. I’ll often narrate corporate videos or short explainers. I’m friendly, informative, professional… so a lot of elearning comes my way. I’m an excellent “every voice”; inoffensive, easy on the ear, and so appropriate to any number of projects needing narration that’s easy to follow and pleasant to listen to.

That’s why the voices of Home Assistants like Alexa, Google and Siri serve their purposes so well – and despite the rumblings about the subconscious bias towards female voices being subservient, there are plenty of male “every voices” too. Most spaceships have female voices. HAL is an exception. But we know what happened to him…

However, my USP is all of the above; with a twist. Mary Poppins reads Fifty Shades of Grey. Cheeky but classy. Professional – but with a wink. Occasionally dry or even a little bit saucy.

It’s Quigley, but quirky.

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One of the perils of reading aloud is that sometimes you don’t know what you’re saying. Literally.

I’ve always been a good sight reader thanks presumably to being a voracious reader growing up. I read a LOT. I was reading books aimed at children older than I was, or young adults. This meant that frequently I came into contact with words I didn’t know. Over time, with enough context, I’d figure out the word’s meaning (or get out a dictionary) but I didn’t always know how to say it. I didn’t learn phonetics until my English A Level, so unless I heard the word spoken by someone else my invented pronunciation became embedded in my memory. Even today, some still emerge in my speech (to confused blinking by whomever I’m speaking to) or in my voiceover recordings.

Shouldn’t I check pronunciations? After all it’s my job to talk and inform – especially when narrating explainers, corporate videos or elearning. Well, yes of course and I do. But what if a word’s pronunciation has become so normal to you, or perhaps you’ve been placing emphasis in the wrong place all this time, you’d never question that it might be wrong? Why would you check it?

One of a voiceover artist’s skills is to sound like they know what they’re talking about. Credibility goes out of the window if you flub a pronunciation, no matter how confidently. So while good friends might not want to cause embarrassment by correcting you, as a VO, it’s pretty vital.

Salvation comes in the form of the internet. YouTube works for company names and brands, ForVO is a godsend for place names and occasionally people’s names and HowJSay saves the day almost every time for anything else. And who is the HowJSay guy? He must have spent WEEKS effectively recording dictionaries a word at a time, including medical dictionaries. Never mind Toast, this man is the ultimate Voiceover.

So while it was only relatively recently that I found out I’d been pronouncing “magnanimous” incorrectly for most of my life, I also still shudder when a script comes in for a British Voiceover which includes the word “aluminum”. US pronunciations are a whole other headache.

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For the last five months I’ve been working as Line Producer for an epic ten hour docudrama for Audible called The Space Race released yesterday in time for the 50th Anniversary of the Moon landings on 20th July. My contribution is minuscule compared to the hours the rest of the team have put into this, but it’s been a major group effort.

We made trips to the US and Russia for interviews, spent long days in the studio recording drama sequences and I spent nearly nine hours in Charleston, USA a few weeks ago directing Star Trek Voyager’s Captain Janeway, Kate Mulgrew, through our narration scripts, where her combination of wry humour and gravitas proved to be a perfect fit for the story.

There have been many headaches (literally and figuratively), very late nights, very long hours and terrifying deadlines.

I’m hugely proud of what we’ve produced and my involvement in it – I’ve never spent a day directing one voiceover artist before, not least one as experienced as Kate and it was both challenging and fun. I also managed the agreements for nearly forty actors during our days recording the drama sequences. Oh, the paperwork. Help.

The Space Race is available on Audible now as an Audible Original, produced by B7 Media and Space Boffins, (who also do a really cool space podcast) so if you want to hear a definitive history of how humans made it to the Moon (and yes we bloody did  – having learned what I have making this, faked it my arse) then this epic story is for you.