In today’s era, not only is the internet delivering additional services to the consumer, but traditional media consumption is also transitioning to online platforms. Now that OTT services are changing how we watch television programming, it has also changed how advertisers approach their audience. OTT (Over the top) refers to the digital content provided via the internet rather than a cable or satellite provider. The group of devices commonly classified as OTT include streaming boxes, HDMI sticks, Smart TV, Game consoles, DVR set-top boxes and Internet-enabled smart blu-ray/DVD players.

The popularity of OTT platforms can be assessed by the fact that Netflix - one of the most popular OTT platforms has over 182 million subscribers from all over the world! As Amazon Prime, Disney+ Hotstar, Zee5, Sony Liv, Voot and other platforms are growing exponentially, it is safe to say that the video medium is being reshaped by OTT video streaming providers.

OTT advertising is an individualized and targeted content provided to the viewers while they stream any show. Thanks to OTT, advertisers can expand their audience reach that previously was only available on traditional TV. Putting it another way - there’s a broad, young and diverse audience that wants to watch your commercials. It’s OTT devices that will deliver your company’s message to them.

5 Tips to Creating Effective Audio-Video Ads

As more and more viewers are switching to OTT platforms, being able to create a crafty audio-video ad will be vital to your success in this new age of digitization. These five tips can help you to get into the right frame of mind, make your marketing campaign conversational, as well as yield the best results from your campaign.

1. Make a crisp Advertisement script: If your listener remembered just one key message from your ad, what would you want it to be? Choosing  one important message, and focusing your effort on driving it home should be your aim while writing the script for a polished Audio-Video advertisement. Here are some important points to consider while drafting your commercial script:

1. Know your audience: Ask yourself: Who, exactly, are you targeting? Who should be reading what you are going to say? Targeting the right audience is going to be crucial for the success of our ads. Make sure you know which audience you want to target. The more specific your messaging and target market, the higher your conversion rates..
2. Understand the Purpose: The question to answer at this stage is quite simple: what will the audio-video ad do? Having a purpose behind your ads is imperative. And this purpose needs to be tied closely to your business objectives. Do you want to create awareness of brands, products, services, and ideas? Or do you want to influence consumers to take action and switch brands? Focusing on the benefit to the prospective customer and building everything around emotion can help your purpose-driven creativity to thrive and soar!
3. Length of the ad : While the online streaming platforms have enabled advertisers to experiment with a variety of commercial lengths, having a clear, short ad will make it less skippable, without sacrificing the narrative or brand lift effectiveness. When listeners are watching your ad, it’s likely that they’re multi-tasking. Having a concise ad is exactly what you need to hook your viewers and convince them of your value proposition from the outset. So make your ad memorable by cutting back on the information that the listener has to remember. Make your ads short enough to keep viewers entertained and long enough to create a meaningful impression. 
4. Form Connection with the Audience: When you’re writing a script, it can be easy to lose sight of the fact that the Advertisement voice over artist only has a limited amount of time to deliver the whole read. You don’t want your advertisement to sound like the rapid chatter! Give time for the audience to mentally absorb what they’ve just heard and take action. 
5. Focus on retention :A great ad story should grab and hold an audience and the challenge is to figure out how to blend the story and brand successfully so that it gets retained into the minds of the viewers. As we’re all bombarded relentlessly by a huge number of other advertisers who are trying to do the same, it is the most difficult thing to do. This is why you must immediately provoke the listeners’ curiosity, imagination or surprise! You have five seconds, and then their minds will start to drift. Be bold!

2. Create a storyboard: A storyboard is an illustration of all the elements that you want to include in your video. A storyboard functions similarly to an outline of a story; it is a shorthand version of the final product that you can use to plan ahead. It captures events, sets and characters that will appear in the video and tells who or what will be on camera. It’s major purpose is to map out the flow of the final production.

1. Focus on the big idea: When creating a storyboard, it is easy to get lost in details. Be aware that there is a lot of distraction out there. So make sure you concentrate on the big idea before looking at anything else. When you got the main idea straight, you can come back for the details. 
2. Keep visuals simple: Visuals are the perfect way to communicate because they paint pictures in the watchers’ minds. By keeping it simple, you can later do the changes with less effort. It also makes the creative process of hiring professional voice over artists for the advertisements lean, easy and flexible. 
3. Create a narrative timeline: Order the events chronologically to follow your story and prevent getting lost. Beside the chronological order, you should add parameters like the location and time when your story takes place.

3. Use Conversational Tone: While crafting any audio-video ad, relatable voice overs can convey and strengthen the brand image. Add a conversational voice factor to it and voila! You have the best ingredient to turn your commercial to success. As a social being, humans like listening to friendly people, who speak clearly and in an empathetic manner. This has never been truer in modern times, when the conversational voice over reads are dominating the advertising space. The sound of the human voice always carries intent and meaning with it and is therefore used by organizations in commercials to promote their product or services. Whether you broadcast your commercial over Facebook, Netflix or Youtube, voice-overs serve as a powerful medium of eliciting a broad range of emotions.

A ‘right voice’ can help you to reach your content to a wider user base and will understand the intent behind the brand’s message. Most seasoned voice artists have their professional home studio set up, and the right equipment to produce top-notch recordings. You must always take the following considerations before hiring the voice that resonates with your commercial’s message:

1. Context clarity: The confidence of presenting any product or service to the listeners can only be achieved if the voice artist understands the context and requirements of the script completely.
2. Voice quality: It's tough to understand what an ad is conveying if the voice is not clear and crisp. The voice narration must be of pristine quality and overall likeable by the listener. 
3. Technical Knowledge: There's a lot to voice overs than just 'voice'. The artist must be able to understand the tone of the script, the flow and modulations and voice inflection to deliver a quality voice over.
4. Language proficiency: The right pronunciation and enunciation abilities are essential while delivering any script. The artist must also know when and how to use accents and should be able to identify with the native audience.
5. Voice Acting:Some scripts may demand the voice actor to play multiple characters and the artist must be adept in doing character voice acting according to the needs of the advertisement and deliver quality voice over recordings.
6. Edit your advert to make it professional: Once you have your voiceover and footage, it’s time to head to the editing room and refine your video ad to perfection. There are a variety of free video editing programs you can use to edit your footage and some of them can deliver a much more professional result. Here are some points that you need to pay attention to while editing your audio-video ads.
   1. While cutting a video can be a process, always remember the core message of the video. People respond to well crafted messages that get right to the point.
   2. Assemble the rough cut before working out any timing issues to have a solid idea of which parts of your advertisement video need the most work.
   3. Choose your music carefully as not every video needs background music. If you’ve decided that yours does, be careful about your choices and ensure your music is suitable for your project.
   4. Don’t overdo it with transitions and effects
   5. Pay special attention to your video speed and momentum to create ads that people will watch all the way through.

4. Include a Call to Action Message: When you embed a call-to-action (CTA), it’s important that it be as specific as possible. Drive traffic to your website, social media site or brick and mortar store by instructing the audience how and where they can learn more about your offering. Reference the exact next steps that you want your audience to take. You can even take it one step further by assigning a special landing page, URL, code or offers. Remember that your CTA is where you get a chance to tell viewers what you want them to do after seeing your advertisement and if they don’t get that right then nothing else matters. Here some simple ways to spice up your calls to action to make them more engaging: 

1. Use a strong command verb and be clear and concise with your CTA.
2. Use words that provoke emotion or enthusiasm as you want to be able to elicit a strong response from your audience.
3. Give your audience a reason why they should take the desired action
4. Take Advantage of FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out). When people think they might lose out on an opportunity that might not come around again, they’ll be mighty quick to hop on the bandwagon.
5. Creating a killer call-to-action is important, but always consider customizing your CTA based on the device being used by your audience.

Hiring a professional voice artist is always recommended while recording your audio-video advertisement to enhance the overall reach of your brand. Seasoned voice artists can engage the listeners better and provide credibility to the narration. Voyzapp is a premium voice over company that hosts thousands of professional voice artists who can provide quality and cost effective voice overs in multiple languages and accents.

The opportunities OTT advertising offers are presenting advertisers with new ways to reach audiences. Considering the effect of creative advertisements and the need of a professional voice over, OTT advertising can become a lucrative opportunity for your brand to widen your horizon!.

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