Huge thanks to Marc Guss and his guest tonight on the Marc Guss Voiceover Club, Cliff Zellman! Cliff is a leader in the world of automotive voiceover, and tonight he worked with Marc and the audience in an automotive VO intensive.
Cliff shared a bit about his background, and his start as a guitar player working at a recording studio, where he became interested in production. He worked his way up to chief audio engineer, and after a while he got into voiceover for animation. His work as a recordist for Saturday morning cartoons, Disney, and others allowed him to learn a lot sitting next to many brilliant directors and watching them interact with the talent.
When Cliff moved from LA to Dallas, he got into automotive, where he was able to write, direct, and use his engineering skills. Cliff estimated tonight that he may have produced nearly 23,000 car spots in his career.
Cliff and Marc discussed the 3 tiers of automotive advertising:
- Tier 1 is vehicle-specific advertising and they are national ads (with no specific location)
- Tier 2 is for regional groups. Cliff said that dealerships in a specific region get together to discuss strategies and budgets, and that they pool resources for advertising.
- Tier 3 is for one-owner dealerships. That owner may have multiple dealerships, but it’s usually an ad for one owner. These ads change frequently because of different sales incentives, so that means a steady flow of new spots for the talent to record.
Cliff said that there are about 18,000 new car dealerships and around 37,000 used car dealerships in the US — that’s a lot of Tier 3 ads! Marc added that it’s one of the top volume areas of work in voiceover, and he and Cliff agreed that they have seen talent keep clients year after year.
“Sometimes the voices become members of the community,” Cliff added, explaining that the dealership owners often don’t want to change a voice if it’s been working for them. This is because of the importance of branding in automotive advertising, Cliff said.
Marc asked about the current trends in Tier 3, with the traditional big, booming voice sound. Is that changing at all? Cliff recalled the start of the pandemic lockdowns in early March 2020, when he suddenly had every clients telling him that they need to change their ads immediately. Instead of saying “come down this weekend,” owners needed to change their message to being accommodating and reassuring to customers.
“Hopefully we’ll maintain this level of community involvement,” Cliff said, noting that the trend is still along the lines of “come on in, we’re your family.” He said that “yellin’ and sellin’” style (I love that phrase!) seems to be out in favor of this more understanding approach since the pandemic started. “We’re not yelling anymore,” he said.
Thanks so much to Marc and Cliff for their advice and insight into the industry, and thanks to the audience reads that helped everyone listening learn so much!
Marc noted that the club will take a 2-week summer break, but after that you can 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.