We’ve all noticed the recent recession-induced focus in advertising towards “traditional values”, “simplicity” and general conservativeness. How boring!  Well, these guys aren’t having any of that - their pitch is is the old adage: “When times are good, advertise.  When times are tough, advertise more.”.

Collapsing advertising spend has claimed a new sort of scalp - two popular websites (SpiralFrog and Ruckus) offering free music have been forced to close down in recent weeks .

Any female voiceovers interested in doing a free gig for a sixth form school project?  It’ll only be two sentences for a pretend film trailer.  

Go on… Spread a little love!

Email c@piehole.co.uk for more info.

Nice one Pete Bradley (BBH London) for creating this intriguing spot for Johnnie Walker.

Since starting Piehole we’ve noticed a lot of differences in the VO industry between Ireland and the UK. Yes, the UK is a MASSIVE industry compared to Ireland, and there is a lot more voiceover work in the UK. But, it’s very competitive. You have to work your shiny hiney off most times. 

For one thing, you have to do auditions.  Lots of auditions.  Lots of unpaid auditions.  The voiceovers in Ireland are pretty lucky, as most auditions are paid at a fixed fee of €118 (That’s roughly 108 Sterling). 

To really compete and make a go of it in the UK, having your own home studio is pretty much mandatory.  This means there’s a bigger financial outlay for the voiceover to get into the business as a studio will set you back a few grand.  In Ireland, all a talented voiceover artist basically needs is a demo, a subscription to this lovely website (obviously), and a bit of get-up-and-go. Therefore in financial terms a mere €450 (£414) can break you into the voiceover industry.  One radio commercial, and it has paid for itself. 

There is also a lot of churn work in the UK.  I’ve heard from UK voice overs who say some jobs are worth as little as 30 quid, whereas the Irish rate cards seem to be much healthier - mainly because the industry here is predominantly commercials-based. But that all said, there is a lot more voiceover work in the UK, and many voiceovers are able to do it as a bona fide full time job. As the successful Irish VO, Tara Flynn once said: “for me, voiceover work is jam, not bread and butter”. But of course, as we all know… voice over work can be pretty jammy.

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This week a record THREE ads from the UK were voted as the best in the world on bestadsontv.com:

Congrats to Darren Bailes, Ben Daly and Nathaniel White at VCCP for creating this silly March of the Ducks spot for O2.

Also, a big up to the team on SONY BRAVIADOME.  They are Richard Flintham, Graham Storey and Phill Cockrell from Fallon, London.

And last but not least we’d like to congratulate the folks at Mother, London for their anti-drug campaign for FRANK (Braincrashers) addressing the unwanted effects of marijuana.  They are Damien Eley, Scott Harris and Ed Warren.

Well done guys!

Found this recent quote by Robert Wight, the well-known president of Engine Group:

“It’s still controversial but in the future we’ll find little synaptic connections that represent the Guardian, BMW, all these brands. You put an electrode on someone’s head and say Jennifer Aniston, for example, and one neuron fires.  It took 50 years after genes were conceived of to find them in the body and it may take another 50 before we find memes - but we will find little clusters, bundles of connections that represent brands.”

Hmm.  What does the future hold for us?

Another great ad from BBH London