Peek’n Peak Resort and Spa Secures audio’connell for Campaign’s 2nd Year

Enticing skiers from New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio to “Come and Get Good!”, Peek’n Peak Resort and Spa has completed production of their 2008 broadcast campaign with audio’connell Voice Over Talent providing audio production services.

Professional voice talent and audio’connell Voice Over Talent president Peter K. O’Connell has again provided the voice for the television and radio campaign, producing it with the resort’s popular jingle. O’Connell’s company had also voiced and produced the audio for Peek’n Peak’s 2007 campaign.

The Findley Lake, New York resort that attracts families and groups looking to enjoy the snow on and off the slopes in winter and golf in the summer (its acclaimed upper course has hosted the PGA’s Nationwide Tour) also offers a spa for hotel and condominium guests and groups to enjoy year round.

Source: News Wire Today

Phoenix Comicon January 26-27 at Mesa Convention Center

Mesa - Boba Fett. The Incredible Hulk. Chewbacca. Enterprise’s Lt. Chekov.

Only in comic books and movies can these characters have their stories told, and only at the Phoenix Comicon can you meet the actors who brought them to life; along with comic book artists, anime voice actors, and best selling authors.

“The pop culture lights shine bright at the Phoenix Comicon” says Convention Director Matt Solberg. “From those who grew up reading comic books under the covers to those who cheered the Rebels on in Star Wars, we offer something for everyone who has a little bit of geek in them.”

Media guests attending the Phoenix Comicon are:

Lou Ferrigno (The Incredible Hulk), Walter Koenig (Star Trek’s Lt. Chekov), Tim Russ (Star Trek: Voyager Lt. Tyvok), Peter Mayhew (Star Wars’ Chewbacca), Jeremy Bulloch (Star Wars’ Boba Fett), and Jeph Loeb (writer & producer Lost and Heroes).

“Only at the Phoenix Comicon can you meet Vulcans, superheros, anime ninjas, Zombies, and other characters only found in your imagination,” says Solberg.

The Phoenix Comicon offers a full weekend of events, from the Zombie Beauty Pageant, to Jedi Lightsaber training for kids. A Japanese Fashion Show, Art Auction, musical performance by Star Trek’s Tim Russ, costume contest, dance, and anime dodgeball are just a handful of the 166 hours of programming that is being offered.

The Phoenix Comicon is January 26-27th at the Mesa Convention Center. Doors open on Saturday and Sunday at 10 AM. Full events tickets are $25, with single day passes available. Kids ten and under get in free with a paid adult. Tickets are available online and at local comic book stores.

Source: Anime News Network

Charlotte Metro Credit Union Commercial Graced by Kara Edwards

Recently, head coach Sam Vincent and Jared Dudley of The Charlotte Bobcats joined actress Kara Edwards in a 30-second television commercial for Charlotte Metro Credit Union.

In addition to appearing in the commercial, you can also hear Kara performing the voice over near the end of the commercial, also known as a “tag” line.

Kara Edwards is a professional voice over talent known for her work in character voice acting in animation series. Kara’s voice has given life to characters including Goten, Gotenks, Lime, and Videl in DragonBall Z; Murugu in Yu Yu Hakusho; Upa and Pocowatha in DragonBall; Celica in Solty Rei; Razzles in the US version of Raggs and many more.

Kara Edwards is also a recipient of numerous awards including a Voicey for Best New Voice in 2007 and Best Lisa Simpson Impression in the Simpsons Sound Alike Challenge.

Click here to see the Charlotte Metro Credit Union commercial featuring Kara Edwards on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DYTsrWEQZ8

Source: Kara Edwards

Teen Voice-Overs Used in Anti-Drinking TV Ads

“Choose not booze.”

That’s the theme of the Mesa County Underage Drinking Prevention Task Force’s media campaign, which kicked off Tuesday morning at the Two River’s Convention Center.

As part of the campaign, the task force will be running anti-drinking television ads, with voice-overs from local youth, and it will conduct a mass mailing of 10,000 postcards promoting the campaign.

The commercials are aimed at teenagers and adults.

Rebecca Spiess, chairwoman of the task force and undersheriff of the Mesa County Sheriff’s Department, said some people see underage drinking as a rite of passage. “It is not OK,” she said. “It is not a rite of passage.”

The task force, which consists of numerous community organizations such as the Sheriff’s Department, School District 51 and both local hospitals, has been working for the past decade to give parents and youth information and resources to combat underage drinking.

The institute reports that 76 percent of Colorado students in grades 9 to 12 had at least one drink of alcohol; 47 percent had at least one drink in the last 30 days; and 31 percent had five or more drinks in a row in the last 30 days.

In 2005, 16.8 percent of all alcohol sold in Colorado was consumed by underage drinkers, the institute said.

For information about the task force, go to www.youthisallthat.org.

To watch the video and hear the voice overs, click here.

Source: The Daily Sentinel

Trump’s Celebrity Apprentice Team Hydra Kicks in VO

Caught any of the new Celebrity Apprentice program?

Although the profile of the assembled cast may be elevated to include celebrity personalities nothing much has changed. The participants are still required to partake in tasks that will demonstrate their abilities to work together and call upon creative forces. This season, the teams are divided by gender, Empresario for the ladies and Hydra for the men.

One of the recent episodes consisted of the teams having to create a concept and commercial for dog food manufacturer, Pedigree. Notable project manager for team Hydra was Gene Simmons from KISS.

Part of the task, as is the norm for the majority of television commercials, included a voice over.

Marilu Henner performed the voice over for the women’s team for their comparatively sparse commercial while the men decided to feature Heavyweight Champion Lennox Lewis on camera with a voice over performed by Trace Adkins who may just find that a career in voice over is in his future.

Source: CheeseSays.com

Podcasting Needs a Standard Set of Metrics to Attract Advertisers

 

The recent news of Wizzard Media hitting the 1 billion download mark has spurred on larger discussion around the viability of advertising in podcasts.

A Community Platform

I have and still hold to my belief that podcasting not merely a delivery mechanism for audio and video content, but a platform for building communities.

As any content publisher knows, advertisers are naturally attracted to large, targeted audiences.

iTunes Converts Big Media into Podcasters

In 2007, we witnessed the iTunes podcasting directory be taken over with mainstream media outlets, creating fresh content and packaged as a podcast, and not simply repackaging existing radio or television broadcasts. A good example of this is BusinessWeek’s look inside and behind the issues cover story, and a personal favorite of mine.

Clearly with the audience is there.

Furthermore, podcast producers have the good fortune of building communities in what venture capitalists would call “vertical markets”.

Ad Creation

Online marketplaces, such as Voices.com, provide a venue where advertisers can search for, audition and hire the ideal sounding voice for their ad. Posting a job is by far the fastest way to get audio samples and prices, and an escrow service will take away any concern over hiring someone you haven’t worked with before. So what’s missing?

Podcast Advertising Metrics

Just as web advertising has standard metrics such as CPM (Cost Per Thousand) for display or graphical banner ads and PPC (Pay Per Click) for contextual ads typically found on the sidebar of your favorite search engines, podcasting needs to find a model that works.

PPP (Pay Per Play)
Advertisers will pay to play a 15-30 sec audio ad embedded within a podcast episode. The listener does not have to click on anything for the publisher to get paid, which is what makes it different to other forms of advertising. Podcasters get paid for 100% of your visitors and the ads are contextual and will be related to the podcast’s content and niche.

Return On Investment

Smart advertisers will make use of website metric software such as Google Analytics and create goals to measure the performance of their podcast advertising campaigns.

For businesses that run on Salesforce.com, you could easily create a “campaign” to measure and manage the number of new leads and sales opportunities from the podcast ads.

So regardless of how you decide to engage in podcasting, the tools are there for podcasters to create great content, for online marketplaces to build a network of ad producers and for the advertiser to measure the return on investment.

Now, It’s a Matter of Leadership

Who is going to lead the industry forward and determine a set of metrics to help new advertisers measure their success in podcasting?

Has Video Killed Old Television Habits?

 

Making headlines today is Nielsen Online, the Internet measurement firm, reported some online video sites have doubled their audience since the strike began at the end of October.The study finds that the audience to sites such as YouTube has nearly doubled in the last year.

Video Sharing Websites Take the Lead

According to Pew Internet

• Nearly half (48%) of US net users visited a video sharing site during 2007.

• On a typical day, some 15% were either watching or posting video.

User Generated Videos Still Going Strong

• Some 54% of American adults now have a high-speed connection at home, compared to 45% at the same time last year.

• According to the Pew Internet Project, men are slightly more likely to use a video-sharing site than women - 53% compared to 43%.

• The younger audience is driving the increase with 70% of people under 30 using such sites.

With some 22% of Americans now shoot their own videos, with 14% of them posting at least some of that video online, how long will it be before we see those numbers increase?

Television Network Video Sites Get Traction

The BBC points out that “the on-going writers’ strike has meant that many popular programs are currently off-air in the US and, according to Nielsen Online, this has seen Americans turn in large numbers to online alternatives. ”

Voices.com’s V.P. of Marketing gave a favorable review of Hulu in her post entitled “Hulu.com Serves as TV Fix During the Writers Strike”.

Mrs. Ciccarelli poses the question “What’s your television viewing schedule been like since November 5th, 2007?”

If that date sounds vaguely familiar, it is the day that the Writers Guild of America first went on strike stopping production in its tracks as actors in support of the writers refused to cross picket lines and pop culture as we knew it began to rely solely upon news programs, reality TV and reruns.

Have you explored any alternatives and enjoyed online video during the writers strike?

5 Tactics for Getting a Job at a Local Radio Station

Thinking locally, that is the radio stations in your hometown, will serve you best when trying to break into the market as an imaging voice, a promo voice, or commercial voice for broadcast radio.

While you’re thinking locally, think traditionally as well. Most stations still require a hard copy of your resume and a demo CD of your work to keep on file.

Address your package to the producer, program director or general manager. This may take some researching to locate the appropriate directors contact details, but you definitely want your package getting into the hands of the right person at the station, lest it get lost or thrown out.

As with any traditional job application, you will need to:

• Write a cover letter and resume introducing your services
• Follow up to confirm receipt of your resume
• Ask if you can send your demo CD for consideration
• Mail a package including a CD sampler of your radio work / demos
• Follow up again to gain feedback

When approaching a station that you haven’t worked for before, you will need to be diligent and professional to catch their eyes and especially their ears. One of the greatest assets you can instantly provide to a station is fresh talent.

Stations, though they do work with some talent on a regular basis inhouse or on retainers, are always on the lookout for new voice talent to help set them apart.

Highlight how you and your voice can make a difference, for example, your proven ability to reach their target audience. It’s all about the station, not about you.

If you remind yourself of that when applying for work, the responses from stations will be more favorable than not.

Good luck!

FlyTunes Launches Mobile Music Service for Apple iPhone

At the Consumer Electonics Show, FlyTunes introduced its new digital music service for the Apple iPhone, Pod Touch and other portable media players and cell phones.

The FlyTunes service offers mobile users a personalized radio-like experience, with thousands of channels of digital music that can be enjoyed anywhere they go, regardless of wireless connection.

FlyTunes outshines satellite radio in a number of ways:

• FlyTunes does not require a receiver or additional hardware purchase; it works with the cell phone or personal media player already in a consumer’s pocket.

• FlyTunes offers access to over 100 times more channels than satellite radio, covering every conceivable musical taste.

• FlyTunes plays everywhere, unlike satellite radio, which does not work inside buildings, or on planes.

• FlyTunes allows users to personalize their music channels. While listening, users can promote favorite songs and flag unwanted ones (never to be played again).

• There are no setup or monthly fees for FlyTunes.

FlyTunes CEO Sam Abadir said that “FlyTunes bridges the massive disconnect that exists between the hundreds
of millions of cell phones and portable media players people already own, and thousands of Internet radio stations that broadcast every type of music they could want.” Abadir continues, “from the user’s perspective, FlyTunes provides an extremely easy-to-use service that allows them to quickly et the music they want and to discover new music.”

FlyTunes allows users to create their own customized music channels by searching over 20,000 Internet radio stations to find music that matches their preferences. Hours of personalized music can be cached to a portable mediaplayer or cell phone and listened to anywhere. Portable devices with 3G capability can quickly cache additional music, greatly reducing battery drain.

FlyTunes Inc. was founded as 2006 by a group of seasoned PC industry veterans to create cutting edge media management technology for portable digital media players.

To learn more, visit the FlyTunes website.

Source: Reuters

Atlantic Wave Radio Airs Quality Podsafe Music With No Interruptions

Atlantic Wave Radio plays new podsafe music each week which is complimented by extra interviews and complete show notes for each episode on their website.

At Podcasting News, Steve from Atlantic Wave Radio says “We are back to our usual schedule with a 30 minute show packed with lots of podsafe music that isn’t interrupted, no fast forwarding in the car or fumbling for the mp3 player in your pocket, relax we make music fun again.”

Atlantic Wave Radio, which is owned and operated by Pod-Star Podcasting has produced over 100 podcasts since starting in 2005, right back at the beginning of the podcasting medium which equates to one new podcast a week.

To hear some fresh independent music, tune into Atlantic Wave Radio by subscribing to their podcast.

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