Commercial Voiceover: 10 Commercial Tones to Cultivate

January 17, 2025 | Rachel Frawley
Photo Credit: Chadchai Krisadapong / Shutterstock.com

As a professional voice actor, one of the biggest things to keep in mind when you are doing commercial voiceover auditions (or creating a reel) is tone of voice.

The type of product being promoted will make a big difference in the vocal personality casting directors and other industry professionals are looking for. As with any other acting skill, it’s good to know and be able to describe your vocal type. Beyond that, here are some common, yet distinct tones to start cultivating for commercial voiceover work so that you can bring these scripts to life.


Insights: Ways to Hone Your Commercial Voiceover Skills

  • Adopt the appropriate vocal style for different products, such as confident for medical ads or dreamy for sleep aids.
  • Practice versatility: Regularly read various commercial scripts to improve adaptability and identify your vocal strengths.
  • Describe your voice: Accurately articulate your vocal range to better market yourself and align with suitable voice-over opportunities.

The Standard Medical

Ads for medication, supplements or medical procedures make up a huge portion of commercial voiceover work. Basic notes and tone of voice you want to hit are confident, calm, reassuring and positive. Remember what you’re selling: this product is likely designed to relieve some sort of pain or inconvenience.You want to foster trust with your target audience.

The Sleepy Medical

This is a common subset of medical products that requires a tonal shift. Ads for sleep aids or related products want to maintain the basic tenets of other medical commercials, but with an added dreamy quality. You want your listener to feel instantly at ease, relaxed, soothed.

The Perfume Seducer

As is often satirized, perfume ads err on the side of sexy. You want to sell a vibe. The promise is that wearing this scent will make you desirable.
Nailing this tone of voice without making a caricature is tricky. If you’re not sure where to start, try sitting a little deeper in your voice, adding just a touch of breathiness and slowing your pace a bit. More importantly, you want to buy into it wholeheartedly. If you feel sexy, you’ll sound sexy.

The Young Parent

These are for your household products, toys, the occasional car, all the daily life products a typical family might use. The friendly tone is generally chipper, upbeat and may contain relatable suffering, but in a cute, cheeky way.

The Professional

A captivating voice with a formal tone, this is for your self-improvement, goal enhancing products and services. You want to be dynamic and at the top of your game while maintaining a confident delivery.

The Relatable Millennial

A mix of casual tones and playful tones, the relatable millennial voiceover is similar to “young parent” but with a slight focus on warmth and accessibility. Think lotions, natural beauty products, the Jennifer Aniston feel.

The Hip Non-Profit

You want to go for an upbeat, authoritative tone, yet compassionate and youthful. Think about “for a dollar a day” commercials.

The Vocal Fry

Still upbeat and youthful, but add some dry wit and sass. This is for music and streaming services, anything geared toward younger generations that wants to convey a “cool” personality. The key to this one is to keep it conversational.

The Law Office

The law office tone requires a confident, authoritative voice that’s compassionate, but with an assertive edge. You want to keep a professional tone while making your target audience feel like you’ll go to bat for them.

The Comedian

These are the funny/cheesy commercials. Anything tongue-in-cheek and generally more adult with great comedic timing. There’s lots of genre overlap, but it’s an important tone to be able to tap into for that sweet, sweet audience connection.

The Announcer

Local PSAs, event announcements, anything that’s not too heavy. You want to be energized, motivated, friendly, and upbeat.

This is by no means a comprehensive list of voiceover tones. Some of these will resonate with you more than others. Try reading different types of commercial copy to figure out which ones you’re best suited to, and get the pace, flow and range of voice found in each type in your body and your voice.

Knowing the trends and shorthand approach for commercials will be hugely helpful to your career in voice acting. Start paying attention to the wide range of professional voice styles you’re hearing in different types of commercials.

Practice describing these voice styles as well. The more specific you can get, the better you’ll be able to quickly identify and adhere to the appropriate tone, and the better you’ll be able to market yourself as a professional voice talent.

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