If you hear the first Christmas commercial of the year and wonder where the time went, think about what it’s like to be us. The people who voice and produce those spots get them weeks before they ever hit the air.
I’m one of those people. I record holiday commercial voice over from a Whisper Room booth in my basement in rural Illinois, and around here Christmas shows up early. Really early.
This one’s for the business owner, the agency producer, or the marketing person sitting on a holiday spot right now. I’ve got two rules from my side of the mic. Both are simple. Neither one costs you a dime.
Christmas Copy Shows Up in October
The first Christmas copy usually lands in October. I’m pretty sure my kids hadn’t even decorated for Halloween before I was adding sleigh bells to a project.
That sounds early. It is early. It’s also on purpose.
Plenty of shoppers start early too. The National Retail Federation reports that 43% of holiday shoppers plan to begin browsing and buying before November. If your spot shows up after they’ve started, you’re talking to people who’ve already made a few decisions without you.
Why a Late Holiday Commercial Voice Over Can’t Catch Up
We call it planting seeds. If you wait too long in the season to cover that seed with dirt, watering it harder doesn’t make it come up any quicker.
I live on a little farm in rural Illinois, so that one makes sense to me in two directions at once. Holiday ads need lead time to build. Spending more money in the last week of the season doesn’t make up for a late start.
The earlier your holiday commercial voice over is recorded and running, the longer it sits in front of people. And the longer it sits there, the longer you stay top of mind when they’re finally ready to buy.
Rule One: Send Copy at Least Two Weeks Before Your Sale
The earlier the better, obviously. But if you want a number, here it is. Get your copy to your voice actor at least two weeks out from your sale date or start date.
Those two weeks are for your spot. They give it time to get recorded, get on the air, and get into people’s ears before the big day shows up. Two weeks is the floor. More is better.
If you’re at an agency, you know what it’s like to have the client breathing down your neck. When you hand me direction, I don’t waste your time with it. What I can’t do is make a late script get heard any sooner.
So if your Black Friday sale or your Christmas open house is on the calendar, count back two weeks from that date. That’s your copy deadline. Treat it like one.
Rule Two: Picture Who’s Hearing Your Holiday Commercial Voice Over
Once the copy’s in my booth, the thing that helps me most is picturing who I’m talking to. The holiday season has more than one listener, and they don’t all need the same thing.
If it’s a parent scrambling at the last minute, I want the read to be empathetic, calming, and understanding. That person is already stressed. They want to hear from somebody who gets it.
If it’s a kid who’s excited for the holiday, I want to match that enthusiasm.
Same season. Same sleigh bells. Two completely different reads.
That’s really the job on any script. A holiday spot has probably been through a lot of hands before it gets to me, and a lot of the feeling can get edited out to make it fit the time. Knowing who’s listening is how I put some of it back.
So when you send a holiday script, tell your voice actor who’s on the other end of it. The parent running out of time or the kid counting down the days. That one detail changes how every line sounds.
If you’ve never given a voice actor direction before, I wrote a whole post on how to direct a voice over session so you get the best take.
A Familiar Voice Helps in a Crowded December
Think about hearing a Home Depot spot on TV, on the radio, or in the store. It’s familiar. It perks up your ears so you know what to listen for, the specials that week, or maybe a project you need to get done.
Familiarity is trust. And every business is trying to get heard during the holidays, so a voice your customers already know does a lot of the work before the first line is even finished.
If you’ve used the same voice all year, keep it for the holidays. Your holiday commercial voice over should still sound like you, just wearing a scarf. I dug into this more in a post about why one consistent voice over artist across every project pays off.
Send the Copy Early
Every year somebody hears that first Christmas commercial and says, already? Now you know why. Somebody like me was adding sleigh bells to it before the Halloween decorations went up.
If you’re planning a holiday commercial voice over this season, plant the seed now. Send the copy at least two weeks before your date, tell your voice actor who’s listening, and give the spot time to grow. If you want me on it, you know where to find me.
Bill Stage records commercial, corporate, and narration voice over from a Whisper Room booth in rural Illinois. Read more about how he works.
