Huge thanks to Marc Guss and his guest tonight on the Marc Guss Voiceover Club, Juana Plata! Juana is a voiceover talent and SOVAS board member, and tonight she and Marc discussed the world of Spanish VO.
Juana shared that she started as an on-camera talent as a host and a producer in Atlanta. She also would occasionally do casting for various projects. This was valuable experience, she noted, because it gave her a sense of what the clients were looking for. When she began a career as a voiceover talent — with the support of her father who has a successful VO career in America and Columbia — her prior experience helped her understand what the clients wanted to hear and enabled her to nail her reads.
She advises VO artists to do their research for auditions and jobs. Studying a brand and what the product is like will help inform your performance, she says. “It’s about knowing the product that we’re working for.”
When Marc and Juana discussed trends in Spanish-language VO, Juana had some statistics ready. According to recent census data that she shared, there are 65 million Hispanics in the US, which make up 19.5% of the population — and this demographic has $1.7 trillion in spending power!
Marc and Juana talked about two distinct styles of commercial read that are popular now: the big, announcer voice and the more conversational style. “Both styles are valid,” Juana said, explaining that the announcer style is heard throughout Latin America, and “it’s an effective way to get to consumers.” But first-generation consumers may look for more of a conversational style, she added.
Another trend that Juana said she is seeing more frequently is the use of Spanglish in advertising, which is when parts of a sentence is in Spanish and other parts are in English. Brands are using this more often, and Juana pointed out that this technique can reach across different generations of consumers.
She advised people who want to improve their Spanish-language skills to watch TV to “help your ear get used to the sound.” Getting a coach to help with pronunciation is another option, she said. You can also look for VO jobs that want a non-native speaker — Spanish with an English accent for example.
You can find Juana here at her website, and catch her at the upcoming One Voice conference in Dallas.
Thanks so much to Marc and Juana for their advice and insight into the industry, and thanks to the audience questions that helped everyone listening learn so much! Check out the Marc Guss Voiceover Club every Wednesday night on Clubhouse at 8:30 pm ET. You can read more of my recaps of Marc’s Clubhouse rooms by checking out this link.