Voice Actors Are Not Your Marketing Team

These days, branding and social media is everything. Many people working in the realm of entertainment have put solid amounts of effort and emphasis into growing their follower count. What was once seen as a fairly meaningless symbol of popularity on the Internet is slowly becoming a factor that can determine whether or not you are considered worthy of being hired for a gig. And unfortunately, how skilled or fitting someone is for a job sometimes takes a backseat to how much of a social platform they have.

“Celebrity VO casting” has long been the norm in Hollywood animated movies, but we’re starting to see it creep in to the video game sphere as well, particularly with the ever-increasing popularity of YouTubers, streamers, and online personalities. Many “Internet celebrities” also do voice acting, which can translate to content producers as dollar signs, particularly if these individuals have a large fanbase that will be likely to purchase a game or watch a show featuring them.

On an even smaller scale, in the indie voice acting realm where content creators are often forced to rely on crowdfunding in order to get a budget for their project, the pressure is on to get as many retweets, shares and likes as possible in hopes of spreading hype about their project and/or getting people to donate. Unless the team is already well-established, their reach only goes so far…hence wanting them to rely on “popular” actors to help spread the word. “Even if your skill in story telling is great, it doesn’t mean your project will reach a wide scope of people,” says Adam Tilford. Especially if the team behind the project is small, they often need all the advertisement they can get so that people actually know it exists!

While wanting to hire popular names is understandable, there are a few issues with this, which I’m going to outline via the following points.

An actor’s job is to act, not be a marketing consultant or influencer.
Influencers get paid and/or sponsored to talk about products on social media to their large followings. Actors will often promote the work they’re in as a means of promoting themselves and staying relevant, but this does not mean that they want to be “on-call” for pushing out updates about your project. The fee you pay an actor specifically covers their job on the project, which is to provide the voice recordings. “Your voice should speak for itself, not the semantics of all that’s behind it,” says Callie Wills. And while many actors will be happy to make a retweet or cast announcement, you’re not paying them as an influencer to also do your promotion for you. “If you have to rely on someone's popularity to carry your project instead of, yknow, actual skill in storytelling, then you failed somewhere,” says Simon D. Aelsi.

Actors have varying degrees of comfortability in how much they may want their name associated with the product.
Just to be clear, plenty of actors will be more than happy to be credited under their real names, list the project on their resume, and/or be included in a cast announcement post. “I like showing off the characters I play, so yes I will share things about whatever projects because *I'm* excited,” says Caitlin Roberts. “But I don't think it should be a requirement.”
While in the past, voice actors were pretty much an anonymous afterthought, nowadays companies and dev teams are putting the actor’s name, or even face, to the character for promotional posts. Promoting your cast is a nice gesture, but if an actor says they’d prefer to be credited under a pseudonym or not at all, it’s important to respect that—-and ideally, it shouldn’t affect their eligibility for casting. There are a number of reasons an actor may wish to use a pseudonym or go uncredited: union status, content of the production, potential conflict with another brand, or—-for actors who aren’t full time in the industry, they may wish to keep their acting identity separate from their real-life identity. Ideally, using a pseudonym shouldn’t be a deal-breaker for marketing reasons, but if it is…disclose up front in the casting process.

If you approach someone only because their follower/subscriber count, it can make them feel used.
While it’s fine to ask someone you’re a fan of if they’d be interested in auditioning for or working with you, keep it focused on what they can bring to the project or why you have them in mind for the character. If your initial approach is all about asking them to share and retweet, it can almost come off as a strange bribe or make them think they were chosen over more fitting candidates simply due to their status. “It would absolutely be a blow to my self-esteem if I was told that I was only hired because I’m “popular,” not because I was the best person for the role,” says Will Engel. Keep in mind that just because this person agrees to work for you, doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll even promote the project or its funding endeavors at all, and you need to be prepared for and okay with that fact when you approach them.

Focusing only on getting “big names” locks out a lot of the up-and-coming or lesser known talent, who may also be a great fit for the role.
While in the end it’s your project and you can cast or not cast whomever you want, don’t automatically write someone off as a potential lead character just because you haven’t heard of them before. “I have been flat told by [casting directors] that I was the perfect fit for a role and the audition was spot on, but they had decided to go with someone who had a larger follower base,” says Will Benzel. Popularity in voice acting is largely a crapshoot based on whether a certain project or character happens to blow up, and just because an actor isn’t well-known yet doesn’t mean they’re necessarily any less skilled or capable of bringing that role to life. Plenty of projects will have a mix of both well-established actors and relative newcomers, which can result in a more unique dynamic than “safe” cookie-cutter cast lists.

Just because someone has a high follower count doesn’t mean those followers will necessarily be your target audience, anyway.
A large portion of voice actors’ following is often comprised of… a bunch of other voice actors. After all, it’s common to follow back and support your industry peers and other like-minded people. But the chance that these other voice actors, who aren’t even involved with your project in the first place, are going to become backers is probably slim. This is why spending a little bit of money for sponsored posts might result in a greater return. “If you’re about to begin the daunting and deceptively difficult undertaking of crowdfunding your project, there are resources and companies out there who specialize in precisely that, and which will likely provide you with a lot more security than a voice actor [...] whose few thousands of followers may or may not be in your target demographic to begin with,” says Michael Malconian.

Offering someone a role in exchange for promoting your project generally isn’t a great business practice.
There are stories of actors who were promised a role in a project in exchange for x number of social media posts, or considered based on the number of likes or retweets their post could get. In one situation, the actor agreed to help promote the project for this reason, only to find out that the developer didn’t have a role for her in the end after all! “I find methods like that very manipulative especially to these actors who are genuinely looking to work,” says Patrick Mealey. There have also been occasional casting calls where prospective auditioners were required to retweet a post or join the project’s Discord server in order to be considered. Or even worse, be required to participate in a public audition process where the number of “likes” determined who was awarded the part! This just comes off as scummy. You should cast or audition an actor because you believe they’re a great fit for the role, not based on whether or not they can secure funding or followers for you.

Remember that in the end, getting funding and publicity for your project is ultimately YOUR job, not the job of creative contractors you are hiring.

Some suggestions…
Know that getting lesser-known cast members can actually be an ASSET to your project.
This sounds strange, but think of it this way. If you hire a popular actor simply because they’re a “big name”, chances are they’re working on a bunch of projects at any given moment, and while they will certainly appreciate the opportunity and give you their best work, your project is one on a list of many for them. However, if you give a newer actor a shot who doesn’t have as much work to talk about yet, they might be especially excited to be cast in your project and want to hype it up a lot of their own accord or even put it in their bio, website or banner. While these things still shouldn’t be expected or pushed for - and ultimately the role should simply be given to the most fitting actor regardless - keep in mind that those who have small followings may turn out to be some of your most enthusiastic supporters. Plus, you never know where these actors might end up five years or even a year from now!

Consider paying for actual marketing rather than relying on your own team to do it.
Sponsored tweets, Facebook posts, or YouTube ads can be effective in drawing attention to your project—-plus, you’ll have a better shot at reaching your target demographic that way, anyway. And rather than hiring influencers who aren’t actors to be a part of your project in an acting capacity, consider simply hiring them as influencers to stream your game or make a video talking about it. Depending on your budget, you could even consider hiring a marketing consultant to work with you on the best ways to get the word out. “It's much more practical, professional, and probably polite to hire a influencer along with your voice actors, rather than pressure the latter to do the former's job,” says Ted Stabile.

If you really want to hire influencers who aren’t professional actors, consider them in cameo roles instead. Or at least be up front about what you’re seeking.
There can be something fun for fans about seeing their favorite YouTuber pop up unexpectedly in a game or show. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to get an “Internet celebrity” on your project, especially if you’re a fan of theirs. But, instead of casting them in all the main roles, why not have them cameo as side characters, Easter eggs, etc? By keeping the “meaty” roles to professional and experienced actors, you can ensure a great performance, while also still getting some familiar names on the project too. (Of course, some streamers and YouTubers are also professional voice actors, so it’s not always an either/or situation.) But at the end of the day, if that’s what you want, just be honest. “When it comes to influencers - be transparent about it,” says Brittany Ann Phillips. “It’s very awkward to make a casting call only for voice actors to be denied the opportunity to audition because they don't have/don't use platforms like Twitch, YouTube, have a sizable social media following etc. to promote. We won't be mad if that's what you want, just be upfront about it so you're not wasting anyone's time.”

Ask, but don’t push.
It’s okay to - within reason - send your cast members certain milestone updates (example: the game is released, full funding goal was met, etc.) You can link to your post and say that any boosts would be appreciated, and people will share if they feel like doing so. But badgering or guilt tripping can put people in an awkward position. “I think that it's great for a voice over actor to post about their roles on their social media, but that shouldn't be a mandatory stipulation in order to book a part,” says Price Everett.

Tag where appropriate.
If you are making a post about a specific character, you can always tag the actor who voiced them, or tag your cast members in a general appreciation or update post regarding the voice acting in the project. Many times people will retweet when they see this, especially if it’s something cool like high-quality artwork of their character or a short video of gameplay in progress which features their voice. However, 1) don’t be spammy and tag the cast in a bunch of updates that aren’t relevant to them, and 2) remember not to tag someone if they’ve expressed to you that they wish to go uncredited.

Don’t take it personally.
It can be easy to feel frustrated, or even resentful, if you see your cast members promoting other projects but not yours. But remember, yours isn’t the only project they are part of. Additionally, many people post on a certain schedule or prefer to post about their most popular roles because those posts - even if they’re just silly meme posts - tend to get the most engagement. Or maybe they forgot, or it slipped by the wayside while they were promoting something else---the point is, you don't know what's actually going through someone's mind. Focus more on your own efforts and less on what other people are doing or not doing.

And finally…make a project that’s so good people will WANT to share it of their own accord.