Category Archives: orlando voice talent

Advertising Agencies Still Growing

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Thankfully, 2009 and 2010 are long past and we in the ad biz have seen some positive turnarounds. In the voiceover production and voice talent agent business we’ve experienced double digit growth within SunSpots Productions Studios in North Carolina and Florida. Many of the agencies with whom we collaborate are pushing along well too. Profits are down, but we’re all keeping busy. This story from Sageworks written by Mary Ellen Biery explains the details…

Ad, PR agencies grow despite slowing U.S. ad spending growth
Mary Ellen Biery, Contributor

U.S. ad spending growth might be looking tepid this year and next, but private companies in the advertising services business are experiencing their second year of double-digit sales growth, according to an analysis of financial statements by Sageworks Inc.

Ad agencies, public relations agencies, media buyers and other businesses that work in that space between advertisers and media owners have seen an average sales increase of more than 11 percent in the last 12 months , Sageworks’ data shows. It’s the second year of a recovery for the industry after an average drop in sales of nearly 7 percent in 2009 as advertisers clamped down on spending during the recession.

Indeed, advertising and other service-sector industries were among the top sales performers when Sageworks recently looked at the state of all privately held companies for the last 12 months.

Strategic consulting firm Kantar Media has reported that ad spending in the first half of 2011 was up 3.2 percent, driven by Internet media and cable television ad expenditures. But the biggest advertisers’ spending stalled in the second quarter, putting ad markets more dependent on mid-sized advertisers, Kantar said. And fresh concerns about the economy have prompted some forecasters to cut estimates for 2012 ad spending despite expected boosts from political ads and the Summer Olympics in London.

Media services firm MagnaGlobal, a division of advertising and marketing giant Interpublic Group (NYSE: IPG), recently lowered its 2012 forecast for total ad spending growth to 2.9 percent from 4.8 percent, pointing to a slowdown in manufacturing, consumer spending and ongoing problems in the labor and housing markets. The firm maintained its forecast for 1.6 percent growth this year. Online advertising and digital direct media are expected to outperform local media, according to the firm.

Some smaller, independent firms, however, are planning for another solid year in 2012 despite the outlook for lackluster ad spending overall.

“We’re bullish, in particular with our clients and the opportunity for new clients,” said Steve Luquire, founder and CEO of Charlotte, North Carolina-based advertising, marketing, and PR firm Luquire George Andrews. (Just a couple hours away from SunSpots Productions studios near Asheville.)

He expects the roughly 50-person firm’s sales could be up about 10 percent this year, and he’s added seven new hires since July in anticipation that business will remain good.

By the way, outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas on Wednesday said job cuts across all industries in the U.S. have already topped cuts in 2010, with one month left. But layoffs announced by advertising services companies have tapered off in recent months.

You can read the entire article at Forbes/Sageworks.

SunSpots Productions

SunSpots Productions provides professional voice talent and creative audio production to agencies, web designers, networks, theme parks, radio, tv, film and wherever quality audio production is needed. If it makes a sound or needs a voiceover SunSpots makes it happen. Plus we offer our ISDN sound booths to voice talent who are visiting the Orlando or Asheville areas.

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SunSpots Zak Miller voices full-time

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SunSpots Productions Zak Miller becomes full-time Voiceover Talent

As one of the founding members and manager of SunSpots Productions Orlando recording studios team, Zak Miller has decided to “put out his shingle” and work as a full-time voiceover announcer. Zak’s been working behind the console and mic for over 12 years with SunSpots and produced over 7,500 sessions and personally voiced over 1,700 radio and tv commercials and narrations. You can hear Zak Miller’s voices at SunSpots: http://www.sunspotsproductions.com/Voice_talent_detail.cfm?id=59

Zak got his start behind the mic in 1992 on the air at WCHZ in Augusta, Georgia. Zak says, “That opened the part of my brain that told me I love to voice! I produced my first spot for a horse show at a South Carolina mall. I had no sound effects so I had to foley everything!” From that radio station in Georgia, Zak worked his way to WDIZ in Orlando, Florida working middays as a DJ. Eventually he moved off the air to the Creative Service Department of Clear Channel Broadcasting in Orlando. While there, he voiced for the Orlando Predators Arena Football Team, Solar Bears Hockey Team and various concerts for the Orlando area.

It was Zak’s work on the radio that attracted SunSpots Productions attention. He joined the SunSpots team in 1997, soon after the company opened its Orlando studios location. Within a few years he became manager of the Florida studio. Zak describes his early years at SunSpots Productions, “Being on the ground floor of SunSpots was a very exciting time. To be a part of the growth and formation of a company like SunSpots with the ideals and approaches to the industry will always remain a special memory. To be able to raise the industry standards and what is and was expected from a production studio and talent agent was a great feeling. SunSpots has changed the way I approach life, business and relationships.” One of his favorite memories of SunSpots was, “sitting in the lobby eating Chinese food and thinking of names for the company. I’ll never forget the time that Janet (SunSpots Co-Owner), fellow voice talent Jaz Adams and I spent the day piling sand around the building to keep “Lake Cassidy” from flooding into the studios!”

Zak’s enthusiastic about his career change to jump to the other side of the recording console as a full-time voice talent. “I am very excited about voicing full-time. How come? When you’re able to do something in life that feeds your passion and creativity, your life becomes more fulfilled…My favorite spot to voice is a spot that tells a story. I love to be able to bring a person into a scene with my voice and my inflection.”

The entire SunSpots Productions staff wishes Zak the very best in his new voice talent career. To hear Zak Miller’s voices (he does a variety of voiceover styles) and his voiceover demos please contact SunSpots Productions at 800-355-SPOTS or online at www.SunSpotsProductions.com. You can also schedule Zak through SunSpots web site.

SunSpots Productions is a global supplier of voice talent and creative audio production and is a licensed talent agent in the State of Florida. SunSpots creates award winning audio from their studios near Asheville, North Carolina and Orlando, Florida.

Happy Anniversary Google!

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Google, no longer just “search engine” Google, is celebrating their 10th anniversary this week. Can you believe it’s been 10 years? Can you believe what it was like BEFORE Google hit the web? Can you believe so many of us passed up buying Google stock at $80 a share? lol I did on that one. Thought they wouldn’t be around long. OUCH!

What a massive player and global powerhouse they’ve become. They stuck with their dreams, focused on excellence and became much more than just successful. Their name even became a verb!

I wonder how so many of us would never be found without Google being on the web. A few years ago, after a technically savvy employee left us, we were absolutely lost in Google’s results. We were ranking in the 800′s or worse.

Through three years of effort we (SunSpots Productions) now show up at least in the Top 20 results in Google’s search engine or mostly on their front page. For example search for “voice talent agent“, “spanish voice talent“, “creative audio production“, “voice talent“, “audio production“, “asheville voice talent“, “orlando voice talent” and there we are on the front page or number one out of millions of pages. It was all done while wearing a white hat too! (SEO peeps know what I mean.)

So thank you and congratulations Google! You’ve inspired and changed our world. I hope the next 10 are full of positive innovations and useful products for us all.