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Commercial Voiceovers

Producer’s Guide to PSAs for the Hispanic Market

April 12, 2018 by Brian Amador

Watch this charming animated PSA for the El Paso Streetcar, voiced  by our daughter Alisa Amador. Produced by Pilgrim Animation

PSAs ImageProducers of public service announcements (PSAs) for the Hispanic market know that skilled bilingual voiceover talent is a powerful weapon in their arsenal when it comes to creating PSAs that resonate with their intended audienc

ABCs of PSAs

PSAs are used to inform the general public and promote government programs, services, or activities or those of non-profit organizations. To be effective, they need to engage the audience with a relatable message and delivery.

Over the years, Rosi and I have had the honor of voicing bilingual PSAs for causes that we wholeheartedly support. We recorded English and Spanish versions of the  “Ask MOVA” spots, produced for the Massachusetts Office for Victim Assistance.  These PSAs were created to inform survivors of the Boston Marathon bombing of the services available to them.

Working with ChavoBart Digital Media, our whole family recorded the environmentally themed PSA “La Familia Verde/The Verde Family”.  And in the wake of Hurricane María, Amador Bilingual Voiceovers partnered with MORE Advertising to create PSAs for the Massachusetts United for Puerto Rico Fund. We produced and voiced the spots, in addition to providing original music.

What Makes a Great PSA Voiceover?

Whether targeting the Hispanic population or a general market, producers who create powerful calls to action are looking for a specific skill set from voiceover talent. Being able to meet this need has allowed us to put our voices to work where they are most useful.

Here are some important qualities to look for in bilingual voice talent for PSAs:

1. Perfect command of both English and neutral Latin American Spanish.

Often the same campaign will be produced for both English- and Spanish-speaking media. Having voice actors who can speak both languages can streamline the process and save the producer money. Neutral Latin American Spanish, which avoids regional dialects and accents, is useful in reaching Spanish-speaking audiences of all backgrounds.

You can learn more about neutral Latin American Spanish in this post from our archive.

2. Ability to offer varying degrees of Hispanic-accented English.

Like advertising, PSAs are often most effective when the listener feels an affinity with the person talking. In Hispanic markets, this means there’s a demand for Hispanic-accented English. Finding the right degree of accent can be a challenge, and for that purpose we created The Revolutionary Accent-O-Meter.

3. Experience and an ability to take direction quickly and accurately.

The goal of many PSAs is to make an emotional appeal to the listener. To do that successfully, the voice actor has to be able to take direction, and to offer different interpretations of the same copy.

4. An understanding of the PSA’s purpose and the ability to convey it powerfully and emotionally.

Voice acting is acting. And acting depends on the ability to analyze the script and interepret it through the lens of one’s own experiences. This is a skill developed over time, and it’s painfully obvious when it’s lacking.

5. A topnotch recording studio that can deliver consistently good audio.

While many PSA producers choose to work in commercial studios, a professional quality home studio can save money and streamline the creative process. Internet-based audio platforms offer producers the ability to hear and direct the voice talent, or even to record remotely. Some of the most popular are ip-DTL, Session Link Pro, and Source-Connect.

6. BONUS! Music

The capacity to add an audience-appropriate original music bed and to fully produce the spots. This can save the producer time and money and enhance the consistency of the spot.

7. EXTRA BONUS! Translation and Script Supervision

The best way to create a PSA targeted to a Spanish-speaking audience is to create it from scratch in Spanish. But that’s not always possible. If a producer wants to create a Spanish spot based on preexisting English copy, it’s vital that the translation be accurate, idiomatic, and culturally relevant. It’s no exaggeration to say that a bad translation can ruin a PSA. We’re often called upon to translate spots or to tweak them so the Spanish sounds more natural.

Filed Under: Commercial Voiceovers, Demos, English Blog, Family Time, Information, Music, News, Public Service Announcements, Videos, Voiceover Tagged With: bilingual voiceover, Brian Amador, Commercial Voiceovers, English Narration, Hispanic Accent, music, Neutral Latin American, PSA, Public Service Announcements, spanish voiceover, voiceover, Voiceover narration

Using Our Voice Overs to Make a Difference

October 13, 2017 by Rosi Amador

The Amador family, Brian, Alisa, Sonia, and I, have always enjoyed doing work geared toward making the world a better place. That’s why we were thrilled to provide voice overs for both the English and Spanish versions of La Familia Verde, an environmentally-themed PSA campaign.

Amador Bilingual Voiceovers - The Green Family - La Familia Verde PSAWant to find out how to save money on your energy bills? Want to learn how to stay healthy in a changing climate? Meet the Familia Verde, The Green Family! Their enthusiasm for saving energy may seem a little exaggerated, but they’d love to be your guides to a green, healthy lifestyle.

On this project, we had the pleasure of working for the first time with ChavoBart Digital Media. They’re a media production and distribution company specializing in short-form environmental and educational content. ChavoBart created the delightful Familia Verde segments as part of a campaign sponsored by the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication.

Hear La Familia Verde in English:

Hear La Familia Verde in Spanish:

All in the Family

As a family of bilingual voiceover artists, we love being able to work together. This is especially true when we get to record meaningful content in both English and Spanish. We hope to be able to lend our voices to many more projects like this – projects that connect our skills with our values. Given the current tendency to ignore science and promote environmentally-damaging energy policies, it’s especially important that we do all we can to protect our planet.

One-Stop Voiceovers

As a family business, we pride ourselves on providing our clients with a one-stop shop for a wide range of voices and languages. Improving the voiceover experience for our clients is something we always strive for! Producers often need to search far and wide to cast their commercials or PSA’s. Not when they come to us! At Amador Bilingual Voiceovers, we can provide all the voices they need in one location. Let our avatars tell you all about it.

Filed Under: Commercial Voiceovers, Demos, English Blog, Information, Public Service Announcements, Voiceover Tagged With: Alisa Amador, bilingual, bilingual voiceover, Brian Amador, Commercial Voiceovers, culture, Demos, English voiceover, environment, environment friendly, Family, green, information, policy, PSA, Public Service Announcements, Rosi Amador, Sonia Amador, spanish voiceover, values, verde, voiceover

Our NEW Voiceover Website for Producers of Hispanic Content!

July 31, 2017 by Rosi Amador

Meaningful Content For the Hispanic Market

¡Bienvenidos a Locuciones Bilingües Amador! Our brand new Spanish voiceover website, www.locucionesbilinguesamador.com, created for producers of Hispanic content, is now online! ¡Estamos encantados de anunciar que finalmente hemos lanzado nuestra nueva página web completamente en español, www.locucionesbilinguesamador.com!

Various flags of Latin American hispanic countries

 

Honoring our Mission

Amador Bilingual Voiceovers‘ mission is to be the foremost provider of Spanish and English voiceover services for clients who create content related to Hispanics and the Spanish language, and who serve Spanish-speaking markets. Being a one-stop voiceover shop for commercials and narrations in perfect neutral Latin American Spanish or North American English, our goal has always been to make our clients’ lives easier through every aspect of our business.

Getting the Word Out – Twice!

One of the most important pieces in building a voiceover business is making yourself known to the people who are looking for your particular skill set. Our new Spanish site enables us to connect with Spanish-speaking content producers in the language in which they’re most comfortable.

Paired with our new whimsical animated, 90-second explainer video, “Somos los Amador – La Familia Latina de Locutores Bilingües” (gracias to the talented team at the Boston University AdLab!), the new site lets us introduce our family of voices to anyone in the U.S. or Latin America looking for voiceover services in North American English, Hispanic-accented English, or neutral Latin American Spanish.

We’re also excited to announce that we’ll be posting the same informative articles you find here on our bilingual voiceover blog in Spanish on the new site moving forward.

It’s All About the Client

Having a wide range of services, languages, and voices to meet our clients’ needs is our raison d’être. Our fully bilingual staff (our studio manager, engineer and social media director are all bilingual, too) are always happy to help make your customer experience a pleasant one.

Let us know what you think of the new Locuciones Bilingües Amador website! Whether in English or Spanish, we invite you to read the latest blog post by Brian, Making Lemons into Limonada.

Haz clic aquí para leer este artículo en español.

Filed Under: Commercial Voiceovers, Demos, E-Learning Narration, English Blog, Information, News, Videos, Voiceover Tagged With: Alisa Amador, bilingual voiceover, Brian Amador, Commercial Voiceovers, Demos, E-Learning Narration, English Narration, English voiceover, Hispanic, Hispanic Accent, Hispanic-accented English, information, narration, Neutral Latin American, neutral Latin American Spanish, News, Rosi Amador, Spanish Narration, spanish voiceover, videos, voiceover

Hispanic-Accented English Voiceover: Turning Lemons Into Limonada

May 10, 2017 by Brian Amador

“What? I have an accent?”brian amador hispanic accented voiceover

My name is Brian Amador. I was born in the great state of New Mexico, and until I moved away, I never thought I had an accent in English. I spoke like most of the people around me.

It wasn’t until I moved to the East Coast that I discovered that yes, I do in fact speak with a slight Hispanic accent when I’m not thinking about it.

After having this pointed out to me by too many people to ignore, I concluded that my accented English might be affecting my ability to land voiceover jobs. I decided to try some accent-reduction coaching.

My coach gave me specific feedback about which letter sounds gave me away, and I worked on being able to neutralize my accent. But one of the things she told me, which I’m glad I heeded, was “DON’T lose your accent! It will come in handy sometimes.”

How right she was! As we broke down last year’s voiceover work by genre and language, it became clear that Hispanic-Accented English voiceover represented a small but significant share of my work.

Work with what you’ve got.

It turns out that there is a market for Hispanic-accented voiceover, and it’s quite broad. We’ve been hired for accented English VO for Commercials, eLearning, medical and corporate projects. There’s never been a greater demand for voiceover that reflects the diversity that is the U.S.A.

About the time that I decided to learn to neutralize my Hispanic Accent, I also decided it would also be a good idea to learn to emphasize it, or to vary it. There are many types of Hispanic accents, and someone born in the U.S. won’t speak like someone who immigrated.

How much accent, and which?

While being able to faithfully reproduce all the Hispanic accents in this country would be impossible, it made sense to study certain characteristics of a few of the more common ones. I listen to the differences in speech patterns between East Coast Hispanics of Caribbean descent and Chicanos from California, and how those are both quite different from the accent that I heard growing up in New Mexico.

It’s an ongoing study that’s become kind of a game. When I get an audition or job request in Hispanic-accented English, I consider whether to use my Rubén Blades, my Cheech Marín, my Grandma, or something else.

Meanwhile, my wife Rosi and my daughter Alisa have also been able to parlay accented English into profitable work. Rosi’s big discovery was how just a touch of British accent can make a Hispanic accent sound more Chilean, and for Argentine, she just channels her Papi.

The Payoff

While Hispanic-accented English voiceover doesn’t represent a huge percentage of my work, I have to say that it has brought some of my most fun jobs, and even some recognition in the Industry.

I recently got to do a commercial for a major sandwich chain in the style of a soap opera, playing a Latin lover type. Then a colleague notified me that I had won a prestigious Earphones Award from AudioFile Magazine for an accented read of the beloved children’s book THE STORY OF FERDINAND. These are two really fun, rewarding projects that never would have come my way if I had lost my accent!

Filed Under: Commercial Voiceovers, Demos, E-Learning Narration, English Blog, Reading & Comprehension, Videos, Voiceover Tagged With: bilingual, bilingual voiceover, Brian Amador, Commercial Voiceovers, Demos, E-Learning Narration, English Narration, english narrator, english voice actor, Hispanic Accent, Hispanic heritage, Hispanic-accented English, reading & comprehension, Spanish Narration, Spanish narrator, spanish voice actor, videos, voiceover, Voiceover narration

Bilingual Voiceover and Marketing to Hispanics

March 19, 2017 by Rosi Amador

Our good friend and super-talented voice actor Doug Turkel recently shared this insightful article with us, “The Importance of Marketing to Hispanics Online in Spanish” by Walter Godinez, which ties in beautifully with our experience in our bilingual voiceover profession.
bilingual voiceover marketing hispanics
As Godinez explains “By the year 2017, the U.S. Hispanic buying power in the United States will equal $1.7 trillion dollars and by the year 2020 the population will represent almost 20 percent of the entire U.S. population.” These statistics show the increasing power of the Hispanic consumer and the increasing need for advertisements and e-learning materials to be in Spanish.

A Bilingual, Bi-Cultural Generation

As the Hispanic population in the U.S. continues to grow, the Spanish language remains important, both culturally and linguistically, to every Hispanic generation. While most Hispanics are bi-cultural, constantly shifting between English and Spanish, marketing that is authentic to Hispanic culture is the most effective way to reach the Hispanic population. However, authentic Hispanic marketing is more than just adding tacos and llamas!

As fluent or semi-fluent Spanish speakers, the Hispanic population in the U.S. appreciates accurately translated and voiced advertising that reflects their culture and identity. Making truly bilingual content targeting Hispanics requires an emphasis on quality in both language and content.

Growing Need for Content in Spanish

Producers of commercial content for and about Hispanics in the United States often hire us to voice ads that promote services and products to the Latino population. In addition, we’re frequently asked to overdub web videos, as well as voicing e-learning content for a Spanish-speaking audience. As the Hispanic population in the United States increases, the importance of educational materials in Spanish becomes necessary for the advancement of future generations. This growing group of people express themselves in both in English and Spanish. Nurturing their bi-cultural identities through bilingual content is a win-win for the producers and consumers.

Bilingual Voiceover Works Both Ways

Here is a bilingual TV commercial I voiced for Nevada Health. (Spanish spot immediately follows English spot.)  In this instance our Spanish translation expertise also came into play to help the producer move away from a literally translated script to a more colloquial read that reflected the original English – one that matches how the Latino viewer actually speaks. Sometimes we’re asked to overdub from Spanish to English to make the message accessible to a U.S. audience. Either way, we’re honored that our work helps increase the reach of important messages.

To read more about the importance of bilingual content, check out Brian’s blog post “Two Sides to Bilingual“!

Filed Under: Commercial Voiceovers, Demos, English Blog, Health/Medical, Information, News, Videos, Voiceover Tagged With: authentic, authentic voiceovers, bi-cultural, bilingual, bilingual voiceover, Commercial Voiceovers, Demos, English voiceover, health/medical, Hispanic, Hispanic Accent, Hispanic heritage, Hispanic-accented English, information, News, spanish voiceover, videos, voiceover

Shiny New Voice Over & Music in 2017

December 16, 2016 by Brian Amador

NEW Music & Production Services and NEW Commercial Demos!

New Musical Production Services Just Launched!
  New Music & Production Services for our Clients

Bringing Our Musical Roots Into Voiceover – After 27 years of singing, composing and performing our Latin music, Brian and I stumbled into our current career as happy bilingual voiceover actors who get to build cross-cultural bridges using our voices day in and out. We launched ABVO in 2010 and haven’t looked back. We’ve gone and done it. We’ve married our two loves – music and voiceover! 

Announcing the birth of our favorite new “shiny thing,” our Music and Production Service! Just launched by composer/guitarist Brian Amador and ABVO senior engineer/ music producer/composer Camilo Gómez. Listen to samples of their awesome original music, now available for spots, documentaries, web videos, corporate use and more, from Latin music genres to electronic, pop and solo Spanish guitar. And we can handle production, too. Read all about it here.

But that’s not all….. BRAND NEW SHINY COMMERCIAL DEMOS FOR 2017!!

Check out Rosi’s English & Spanish Commercial demos, and Brian’s English commercial demo. Fun, right? From real person, conversational to authoritative, sensual and upbeat/high energy, we love to mix it up for the brands who put their trust in us, whether in English or Español! Let us know what you think. Incidentally, HAPPY HOLIDAYS to you and your loved ones. Gracias – thank you for joining us here. We wish you a peaceful and prosperous 2017.

Filed Under: Demos, English Blog, Voiceover Tagged With: bilingual, bilingual voiceover, Brian Amador, Commercial Voiceovers, Demos, English voiceover, latin music, music, music production, musician, News, Rosi Amador, Spanish Commercials, spanish voiceover, voiceover

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