How People React to Male vs. Female Voiceovers
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Mar 10th, 2010 |
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– By: Mark Dolliver
The results of an AdweekMedia/Harris Poll, conducted last month, give reason to believe gender stereotypes are alive and well in the way many people react to male and female voiceovers in commercials.
On the question of which sort is “more forceful,” 48 percent of respondents said a male voiceover is, vs. 2 percent saying a female voiceover is. (The rest said it makes no difference.) The pattern was just the opposite when people were asked to say which is “more soothing,” with the female outpointing the male by 46 percent to 8 percent. There was no significant gap, though, on the question of which is “more persuasive.” Eighteen percent said a male voiceover is, while 19 percent said a female voiceover is.
Elsewhere in the same survey, respondents were asked to say which sort of voiceover is “more likely to sell me a car.” The male was the bigger vote-getter here, 28 percent to 7 percent. The same was true on the question of which is “more likely to sell me a computer,” with 23 percent picking the male voiceover and 7 percent the female voiceover.
Are you shocked and appalled? Do you agree with the findings? Leave us your comments and thoughts here!
The results are by no means surprising and they confirm the usual cliches.
I’m a voice-over professional, and I was much more surprised by the effect a certain accent can have on the success of an advertising campaign.
Ginger software experimented with video on their landing page. 50% of the global audience saw the video with a British voice-over, and 50% saw it with the voice-over performed with an American accent.
The result: globally, the British voice-over turned out to be more effective at converting Ginger website visitors into software downloaders.
In almost every market, the British voice outperformed the American counterpart.
That’s good news for voice-over pros with a British accent such as myself!