Can you name that voice?

Do you know that…

Kevin Spacey is pitching Honda. Kelsey Grammer does Disney. Kiefer Sutherland voices Apple commercials, and his father, Donald, did Volvo. There’s Queen Latifah (Pizza Hut), Sean Connery (Level 3 Communications), Christian Slater (Panasonic), Gene Hackman (Oppenheimer Funds) and Julia Roberts. That’s right, Julia Roberts, in a recent campaign for America Online.
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The more difficult question is why advertisers are willing to spend a big chunk of their budget on a star whose voice, however distinctive, likely won’t be recognized by many.

Read the article by The News & Observer here.

This is crazy, yet understandable. My take is that these advertisers still flock to big name stars to do their voice-overs so that they:

1. Get to spend the huge amount of budget they have.
2. Can subtly get into the consumer’s head subconsciously.
3. Create a group of fans who see themselves as an exclusive bunch when they realize through their own discovery who the voice belongs to.
4. These group of self-important fans support the product even more because it seems as if that company is good (and rich enough) to pay someone lots of money, but yet don’t overtly promote that fact.

There you go. Killing many birds with one stone. Brillant.

Technocrati Tags: Advertising