A London-based voice-over company co-founded by a University of Western Ontario music alumna is making waves in the United States.
A recent New York Times article by Thomas L. Friedman called “The Do-It-Yourself Economy” spoke highly of the voice-over services provided by Voices.com for a video produced for an American non-profit organization. It was cited as an example of how economic challenges are forcing companies to shop around the online marketplace for cheaper services.
Voices.com was started in 2004 by Stephanie Ciccarelli, a graduate of the Don Wright Faculty of Music (Bachelor of Musical Arts’06) and her husband David. The company is located at Western’s Research Park.
The marketing agency working on the video, Greer & Associates, needed to find a narrator and solicited the online database that connects professional narrators and voice actors with companies.
In the New York Times article, Friedman discusses how his childhood friend, Ken Greer, was able to cut production costs by using Voices.com. The marketing agency was able to review voices and those who were chosen read the script and delivered the final product as MP3 files. All of the voice-over production was done online.
In the past, companies would have had to look for local voice-over talent, but the Internet has eliminated geographical constraints and has created a more competitive market. Voices.com provides access to narrators of different ethnicities and with various accents.
“Greer & Associates needed to find a narrator and were thrilled to receive a number of auditions almost instantly from a variety of qualified voice actors. Each reply included a typed proposal accompanied by custom demonstrations of their script and competitive price quotes,” says David.
Since the article ran earlier this month, website traffic has increased by 53 per cent, he says, noting “registrations on the website and sales for the entire week had more than doubled.”
There are more than 41,900 voice actors registered on the website. From London, Ont. to New York and as far as Tokyo and Lagos, Nigeria, the company serves more than 107,220 employers of voice talent.
Among the company’s most notable clients are Nintendo USA, which posts commercial projects for the Wii and associated video games; the Make A Wish Foundation; The Los Angeles Times; and many other high profile organizations.
In February, Voices.com will be moving to 999 Collip Circle, the newest building at Western’s Research Park. Voices.com has experienced a more-than 500 per cent growth spurt from 2005 to 2008.
Voices.com has been named one of Canada’s fastest growing emerging companies (Profit Magazine’s Hot 50 list) and one of Canada’s top 10 Web 2.0 pioneers (KPMG and Backbone Magazine).