One of the perks of voicing company VoIP's is that you sometimes get to be cast in their radio & tv advertising...as is the case with Water Mill Building Supply. Offering customers in the Hampton's, the Quogue's and in Montauk quality hardware with all the finest trimmings.
WMBS, as they are known in their condensed form for online and smartphone presence, wanted a young trusting read for a co-op radio campaign with Royal Building Products. But wait, after hearing I could put 200 words together and still make it under :60 seconds they decided to stretch the envelope ever further and throw in a few additional words for their Connecticut subsidiary; Country Lumber. Ah, a Challenge! 160 or so words is the usual amount for a Sixty.Whoa, it's not as easy as you think to fit 1:10 seconds into :58/:59. For those who are strictly digital, it's important to point out that speeding things up can only get you so far until it's stretched to the point of sounding robotic. The initial vo track was recorded at 44,100 kHz. We sped it up to 45,300 kHz. Most sounded OK but there were pockets that weren't sounding natural. Those areas were replaced with the original track. Just a sentence or two was all that was needed. Ahhh, but we were still long by about 3 seconds. Wait a minute - how 'bout we take advantage of a well known trick used by the car industry...The 'fine print' disclaimer! You know the deal; rat-a-tat-tat the fine-print at a hundred miles per hour and EQ'd to sound like one's inner-most thoughts or an airline Capt.'s debriefing via overhead speaker. Worked perfect for the last lines.
And just when we had it...the client called and said we gotta use the entire client name for the smartphone app. So, instead of wmbs we now had to say Water Mill Building Supply.
Luckily, before we all had heart attacks, the client gave us their blessing of taking out some not-so-essential words to help with the effort. That kept the integrity of the spot intact regardless of its bulging 223 word count. Here's the abbreviated version of the Water Mill Building Supply radio spot.
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516.488.8840 Office
516.448.9900 Mobile
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