Is this the most annoying voice ever?

Date: January 22, 2019

Written by: Emma

A client emailed me. “Emma, can you sound annoying? Not just a bit annoying. We’re talking the kind of annoying that people never forget. You’d be the voice everybody loves to hate.”

I asked my colleague, Rich Sweetman who has endured almost twelve years of working alongside me. “Am I annoying?” I said.

He looked at me blankly, with the hundred-yard-stare of a man whose spirit has been almost entirely broken. He tried to form words but his mouth just moved in shapes. Eventually, he just nodded.

I replied to the client. “YES! I CAN SOUND ANNOYING BUT YOU KNEW THAT ALREADY AMIRITE??” I wrote. He sent me the script and I got cracking.

In the recording session, I demo’d a few voices I thought might be strong contenders. My favourite voice style ever is my take on a local independent radio newsreader. This voice emerged from this piece of voiceover audio I recorded ages ago. I’ll warn you, it’s ridiculous. It’s me, pretending to audition for a job as a local radio newsreader. Have a listen.

Reader, on hearing this audio the Head of News at a radio station which shall forever remain nameless offered me an interview…

So when I was asked to voice this ‘annoying’ campaign, the client wanted me to come up with a distinctive voice that could be developed into a regular feature on the ads. I remembered the spoof audition and riffed around the voice a bit. The client really liked it. Since then, it’s turned into a multi-ad campaign that’s now been running for a few years. Here’s the latest one. Enjoy!