My Approach to an Authentic Corporate Voice Over

A common challenge for any business is infusing a human voice in its marketing and communications. This is especially true for healthcare organizations, which must gain the trust and respect of the communities they serve.
In this blog post, I want to share the approach I used to deliver an authentic corporate voice over for Denver Health, one of the oldest healthcare systems in Colorado.

Denver Health’s Unique History & Mission

Denver Health has been serving its local communities since 1860, when it was founded as City Hospital. Over the past 160+ years, the hospital continued to grow, expanding into a sprawling healthcare system with primary care clinics, emergency services, specialty care and numerous public health initiatives.

Today, Denver Health serves 1 in 4 residents of Denver every year. All of this growth supports its core mission of providing “all in our community with access to the highest quality and equitable health care.” .

I had the pleasure of helping Denver Health to infuse the essence of that mission – compassion, care, empathy and confidence – into a corporate voice over for one of its recent ad campaigns.

My Approach as the Voice Actor

In my experience as a voice actor, I’ve proudly worked with hundreds of companies, non-profits, educational providers and other organizations. Each client has different goals and objectives. Some need a “deep voice actor,” an “urban” voice, a “soft” voice and so on..

I got involved with Denver Health through a collaboration with Denver ad agency Karsh Hagan and voice-over talent agency GoVoices. Right away, it was clear that Denver Health was looking for a human voice that would express authenticity in a way that connected with their community.

For me, that meant adding a caring-but-confident sound to the video narration – not unlike the confidence you get from a family doctor.

But also, watch the video above. Notice the upbeat tone? The rhythmic beat? “This is the rhythm of our city,” the copy reads. The goal here is to reinforce Denver Health’s connection to the city and resonate with Denver’s diverse population.

So for me, that meant also making sure that the video narration sounded:

• Engaging
• Invigorated (but also composed)
• Passionate
• Determined
• Relatable

My Tips for Voice Actors

The goal of any aspiring voice actor should be to sound human in an artificial world. What does it mean to sound human? An important but often overlooked aspect of Voice Over is the fluidity of the read. Basically, it means the ways the sentences transition together to sound like one fluid poem. Oftentimes, corporate voiceover scripts lack this crucial concept. Through repetition, memorization and mic time – fluidity can be mastered.

If you’re an aspiring voice actor who wants to incorporate authenticity and a human voice into a corporate voice over like the one I delivered for Denver Health, here are some important things to remember:

• Take the time to understand your client and their goals.
• Immerse yourself into the company’s mission: what are their values? What qualities does the organization represent?
• Take on a persona that embodies those qualities. Infuse them into your voice.
• For a compassionate sound: slow down your pacing. Use a soft, soothing voice – not unlike the voice of a caring nurse.
• For confidence: add more inflection. Enunciate a little harder. Add brief pauses between sentences.
• Ask the client to hear the music track, if available. This will allow you to gauge the overall tone and rhythm of the ad, so you can adjust your delivery accordingly.

Final Thoughts

Just to be clear, the tips above are just a foundation. There’s no exact science or rules for delivering a corporate voice over. It’s more of an art, which must be adapted to the needs of the project, the client’s goals and the intended audience.

Denver Health and Karsh Hagan did a great job creating an ad that connects with the audience on a human level. In my view, this ad perfectly aligns with Denver Health’s mission to serve its community authentically, and with love – and I’m grateful to have contributed to it.