What is an SLR?
Ever see a voiceover audition that doesn’t give you a traditional script, but instead hands you a list of bulleted "talking points" and asks you to improvise a testimonial? That is an SLR, or Simulated Live Read. Live Reads have been around since the earliest days of radio, but the Simulated Live Read is a very current concept.
In the modern marketing world, brands are moving away from overly polished, theatrical announcers. Instead, they want to capture the spontaneous, organic energy of a real podcast host or radio DJ talking about a product off-the-cuff. An SLR is a pre-recorded voiceover engineered to sound completely live, natural, and unscripted. Instead of the podcast or radio host delivering the improvised testimonial based on talking points, a voice actor or influencer pre-records the SLR, and then it is given production effects to sound like it is part of the live show.
The Marketing Producer's Perspective
Why are they asking voice actors to make SLRs? From a producer's point of view, SLRs are pure gold. Consumers have developed "ad blindness" to traditional commercials, but they highly trust authentic recommendations. By having a voice actor improvise from talking points, producers get a piece of audio that sounds genuine, casual, and highly persuasive. It gives the product a "word-of-mouth" feel, even though the campaign is entirely planned. In my latest post What is an SLR (Simulated Live Read)? - American Voice Over Actor Lance Blair I ask an SLR radio marketing producer what he thinks of the format.
My next post will be about what SLRs mean to voice actors in how to approach them for auditions, and how to stand firm on rates if there is scope creep.