 BUSINESS Donald V. Hillary: Who Will Bring More VO Work For The Next 4 Years? June 10, 2016  Note: We're not inviting debate or comments about political candidates, but we think you'll value Dave's perceptive thoughts on how either party's win might affect your voice over business. One thing for sure: get your political demo flying!By Dave Courvoisier Voice Actor & TV News Anchor The bottom line for future voice over opportunities: Which candidate/party can create the most robust growth in a stable economy that stimulates consumer confidence, buying power, and (especially for voice actors) a strong entertainment, digital, corporate, and media marketplace?Both the Dems and the GOP will outdo themselves spending money on popular (traditional) media leading up to the November elections. It will be the most money spent EVAR on the absolutely criminal way the USA conducts its campaign financing laws. TV stations like mine (KLAS-TV, CBS) are already planning to sell every possible "avail" they have, going down the stretch to once-every-four-years political ad buys. That means pushing aside their steady clients (car dealers, hotels, national buyers), or placating them as best they can, to come back after the general election, and prepare for Christmas sales. VO Advice: Augment lost revenue on regular client ads this season by selling the heck out of your political demo. IF REPUBLICANS WIN ... Good luck predicting this one. "The Donald" is a bit of a loose canon, but if he sticks with the big corporate business moves that made him a billionaire, you can expect him to work toward generating more independent (small) business initiatives, reducing taxes, and being a bully on an international scale. What he does with Wall Street is anybody's guess. It's made him rich, but he's talked about dismantling that culture. As for the entertainment industry, I'd guess more deregulation, and loosening FCC restrictions on the media marketplace. VO Advice: Hedge your bet on all fronts. Have a great commercial demo, but don't dismiss corporate or eLearning opportunities. If the GOP is successful in dismantling Obamacare, it'll be a free-for-all of health/medical/insurance/and pharmaceutical ads. Better brush-up on that demo too. Oh, and there will be a new genre of opportunity: pro-firearms and anti-gun advocates. IF DEMOCRATS WIN ... A Clinton win in the fall would not necessarily lead to continuing Obama policies, but the changeover would not be as jarring as a switch to a Trump White House. Expect across-the-nation minimum wage hikes, a continuation of the Affordable Care Act, a boost to unions everywhere, greater governmental entitlement program spending, and bigger Federal spending in general. The entertainment industry is liberal, so it's likely it will respond favorably to a Clinton administration, and create greater opportunities. VO Advice: Work your local, state, and federal relationships for greater VO activity in government-generated program needs. Tap into a stronger entertainment/media marketplace, and make yourself marketable in the areas of women's issues, cultural trends, and products that cater to health, the credit/banking industry, and food/fashion. DIGITAL REVOLUTION WILL CONTINUE Neither party nor candidate will directly affect the trend toward digital media, and away from traditional (legacy) media. Broadcast TV will continue a slow demise, and digital streams/niche programming/alternate distribution channels will thrive. Similarly, the motion picture industry seems unaffected either way right now. Neither would a Hillary or Donald White House affect the general cultural shift toward the urban life away from rural. The media dominance of New York City and Los Angeles will grow, and the effect of diminishing economies in the "flyover" states will become a non-issue. FINAL ANALYSIS: A smart entrepreneurial freelance voice actor will find a way to follow the opportunity (within the confines of their own beliefs), regardless of the regime in Washington. What? You really expected one party to make it better for you than the other? I ain't that smart to be able to predict that! Vote your conscience, then get back out there, and take advantage of the best economy in the world for voice actors: the USA!!! --------------------- ABOUT DAVE
Dave Courvoisier is an Emmy Award-winning broadcaster, writer, producer, voice actor, and the main weeknight news anchor on KLAS-TV, Channel 8, the Las Vegas CBS affiliate. He also writes Voice-Acting in Vegas, a daily blog of voice over adventures, observations and technology, and is author and publisher of the book, More Than Just A Voice: The Real Secret To VoiceOver Success. Email: CourVO@CourVO.com Web: http://www.courvo.com Blog: http://www.courvo.biz More Than Just A Voice: http://courvo.com/more-than-just-a-voice |
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It's great to see your perspective on this as a TV news man/talent. Although, I do keep up with the "Daily Blues" you still may have greater access than most of us do. I think your advice is well placed, too. You've reaffirmed some things on my mind and helped clarify some others. Great advice... thanks for your thoughts!
But that's just me. I'd be thrilled if "my team" came to me for work, but since I have non-political work with regular clients who are posltioned all along the political spectrum, I haven't yet chosen to seek political spots - yet. We'll see....
The question here should be about VO ethics.
Do VOs have a moral responsibility to not lend their talents to copy filled with lies, half-truths, and impossible promises?
I'm betting the copy will be the worst ever on both sides. I'm also betting VOs will take the money and run.