Voiceover world is rocking with SunSpots changes

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We've got many irons in the fire, things in the works, monkeys with wrenches (good lil monkeys with tiny wrenches) and many changes coming to SunSpots Productions in the coming weeks. We'd like you to be a part of it all whether you're a voice talent, agency creative or voiceover and advertising fan. 

Speaking of changes...heyyyyy...wait...is that a new logo below that keeps popping up around the web and Faffcon? Yessssssss it just might be. See, changes happening right before your eyes! Bazinga!

Just enter your info in the form below and hit "Sign Up" so you can keep up with new voiceover talent who've joined our roster of pro voice actors, talent news, ad industry updates and more.

Items with check marks are required, the others, it'd be nice if you did input that data, so we can see where on this big blue marble you're located. You can always opt out easily and of course, your email address will never be sold or used for diabolical purposes. 

Thanks, talk to you soon!
Tom
Pres.
Jefe de Webby
SunSpots Productions

Asheville 2011 AAFA Addy Award Winner's List

Asheville, NC 2011 Addy Award Winners

SALES PROMOTION

Catalog

Award: Gold ADDY® Award
Entrant: trent thibodeaux design
Advertiser: Watkins College of Art, Design & Film
Title: Watkins College Promotional Book
Credits: Trent Thibodeaux, designer

Award: Silver ADDY® Award
Entrant: Asheville School
Advertiser: Asheville School
Title: Asheville School Viewbook and program guide
Credits: Bob Williams , Director of Communications, Asheville School
Andy Hirt , Director of Admission, Asheville School
Blake Madden , Photographer, Blake Madden Photography
Lydia Carrington, Writer, Brucemont Communications

Sales Kit

Award: Gold ADDY® Award and Best of Show Print
Entrant: trent thibodeaux design
Advertiser: Watkins College of Art, Design & Film
Title: Watkins College Promotional Package
Credits: Trent Thibodeaux, designer

Packaging

Award: Silver ADDY® Award
Entrant: Connie Aridas Creative
Advertiser: sgblue
Title: O two Box
Credits: Connie Aridas, Art Director / Designer / Illustrator
Val Leeper & sgblue team, Copywriters
John Warner, Photographer
Parks Newby, Illustrator
Porch Light Studio, Production

COLLATERAL MATERIAL

Brochure, Color

Award: Gold ADDY® Award
Entrant: Market Connections
Advertiser: Keystone Camp
Title: Keystone Camp Catalog
Credits: Brad Campbell, Creative Director/copywriter
Allison Evans, Art Director/copywriter
Alison Fields, Copywriter
Tracy Turpen, Photographer

DIRECT MARKETING

Direct Campaign, B-to-B or Consumer

Award: Silver ADDY® Award
Entrant: The Parish Group
Advertiser: Seton Hill University
Title: Seton Hill University
Credits: Meredith Rushing, Designer
Kim Sheeter, Copywriter

Specialty Advertising

Award: Silver ADDY® Award
Entrant: Big Bridge Advertising
Advertiser: Greenman Brewery
Title: Beauty Is In the Eye of the Giftcard Holder
Credits: Stephen Becker, Creative Director/Lead Designer

INTERACTIVE MEDIA

Website, B-to-B HTML, Services

Award: Silver ADDY® Award
Entrant: Integritive2
Advertiser: Integritive
Title: Integritive
Credits: John Miles, Chief of What's Next
Travis Medford, Pixel Herder
Matt Levin, Visual Ninja
Bill Higgins, Technostalgist
Andrew Layton, Grand Master Flash

Website, Consumer HTML, Outlets

Award: Silver ADDY® Award
Entrant: Connie Aridas Creative
Advertiser: sgblue
Title: sgblue website
Credits: Connie Aridas, Art Director / Designer/ Illustrator
Val Leeper & sgblue team, Copywriters
WSI Webworks, Site Development / Programming
John Warner, Photographer
John White, 360 Programming
Parks Newby, Illustrator

Banners / Pop-ups / Screensavers

Award: Gold ADDY® Award and Best of Show Interactive
Entrant: SCALE
Advertiser: Sealy
Title: SimpleHealthyRest Banner Series
Credits: Lee Lance, Executive Producer
Wayne Wu, Creative Director/Designer
Roger Frank, Writer

Micro or Mini Sites

Award: Silver ADDY® Award
Entrant: SCALE
Advertiser: Sealy
Title: SimpleHealthyRest.com
Credits: Lee Lance, Executive Producer
Wayne Wu, Creative Director/Designer
Emmet McGovern, Lead Programmer
Chaz Jachimski, Front End Developer
Roger Frank, Writer

Online Campaign

Award: Silver ADDY® Award
Entrant: SCALE
Advertiser: Sealy
Title: Embody by Sealy Brand Awareness Campaign
Credits: Lee Lance, Executive Producer
Wayne Wu, Creative Director/Designer
Emmet McGovern, Lead Programmer
Chaz Jachimski, Front End Developer
Roger Frank, Writer

ADVERTISING FOR THE ARTS & SCIENCES

Arts, Mixed Media Campaign

Award: Silver ADDY® Award
Entrant: Flat Rock Playhouse
Advertiser: Flat Rock Playhouse
Title: TaDa! If you got it... Flaunt it
Credits: Damian Duke Domingue, Resident Creative/Art Director
Scott Treadway, Photographer

PUBLIC SERVICE

Public Service, TV

Award: Gold ADDY® Award and Mosiac ADDY Award
Entrant: Kd Multimedia
Advertiser: Homeward Bound
Title: Homeward Bound: Invisible
Credits: Katie Damien, Director
Brian K. Alexander, Production Assistant
Cynthia Smith, Production Assistant

Public Service, Campaign

Award: Silver ADDY® Award
Entrant: Flying Rooster, Inc.
Advertiser: OASIS (Outreach and Awareness:Sexuality Information for Stud
Title: Everyday Bodies
Credits: James Fay, Photographer
Adam Hajnos, Illustrator
Charlotte Moore, Copywriter

ADVERTISING INDUSTRY SELF-PROMOTION

Ad Club Promotion

Award: Silver ADDY® Award
Entrant: AAF-Asheville
Advertiser: AAF Asheville
Title: You Never Forget Your First Time
Credits: Gary James, Creative Director, Copywriter
Mary McGahren, Art Director, Graphic Designer
Katy Rosenberg, Winner & Program Book production

ELEMENTS OF ADVERTISING

Logo

Award: Silver ADDY® Award
Entrant: Connie Aridas Creative
Advertiser: sgblue
Title: O two logo
Credits: Connie Aridas, Art Director / designer

Photography, Campaign

Award: Gold ADDY® Award
Entrant: Lynne Harty Photography, Inc.
Advertiser: Lark Books
Title: Keeping Chickens
Credits: Lynne Harty , Photography
Chris Bryant, Art Director and Food Stylist
Ashley English, Author
Nicole McConville, Editor

Congratulations to all of the winners of this year's Asheville Addy Awards!

Tom

Asheville Addy Awards This Saturday

Asheville Ad Federation

Asheville's chapter of the American Advertising Federation is holding their annual awards ceremony this coming Saturday.

From their website:

Advertising's answer to the Oscars, the ADDYs is a party not to be missed. See all types of ad creativity revealed in all its glory (e.g., ad campaign, direct marketing, sales promotion, newspaper, television, mixed media, and more.) Guaranteed to be raucous and wild, come see amazing feats of our ad community's best talent at The Venue in downtown Asheville!

No mention of radio? Say it ain't so! I'm sure someone's submitted some creative radio spots. If not, well...come talk to us. SunSpots produces Addy Award winners for markets all over the country.

We wish all the agencies the best of luck!


Asheville Addy Awards Tickets

SunSpots becomes SnowSpots?

Yesterday SunSpots Productions recording studios near Asheville, NC was covered with snow, again! What an incredible winter we've had there. (I'm writing from SunSpots Florida studios near Orlando today.) Janet took some pics from her office window with her Blackberry:

Another pic from Janet's office. Notice the birds by the feeder.

Here's the view in front of Jay's studio control room.

Luckily all the voice talent working with us in NC connected to us via ISDN so they didn't have to drive up the driveway. Sometimes it gets covered heavily with snow and ice. Janet called me yesterday and said considering this winter's weather in western North Carolina and the Asheville area maybe we should change our name to SnowSpots? Might have to if this keeps up. For me, I'm off to Disneyworld this evening and I better bring a jacket, it's supposed to be in the 50's. Brrrrrr... ;-)

Bambi visits SunSpots near Asheville

The wildlife hits just keep on coming. Looks like it's lunchtime in the animal world too. Around noon today a large deer visited SunSpots NC recording studios property near Asheville. We've got a heavy producing apple tree that the deer are beginning to visit every other day. Here's our latest visitor:



Have any wildlife where you work? (Other than that creepy guy with the weird hair at the water cooler.)

And as always if you're searching for professional voice talent, fully produced, supervised and directed recording sessions and creative audio production in most languages please visit SunSpots Productions.

What wild beast will show up next?!

Snakes Alive at SunSpots NC Voiceover Studios

I just saw news yesterday of pythons being an invasive species in Florida. Here's the story from USA today: http://tinyurl.com/msfp78
We had a small invasion of snakes here at SunSpots Productions Asheville...well in the driveway at least. As I was driving back from doing some errands away from the studio I drove up our driveway and found this elongated beastie catching some sun.

From online sources I think it's a black rat snake. Possibly a female since I saw a baby the night before while I was walking in some grass around the same area. I had my camera in the car with me and was shooting from the window. Here's a closeup (from far away):


Here's one once it moved across the driveway:


I'll have to get my camera ready for this weekend to catch some more wild beasties! Last night, right after sunset, there were 2 juvenile deer trying to get the apples from the apple tree about 20 yards from Bryan's studio window. They were standing on their hind legs and would jump and hop and sort of fall over when they missed. The tree this year is bursting with apples so I bet we'll have lots of woodland creatures visiting throughout the fall. So far this summer we've seen turkeys, deer, a black bear and snakes. Oh! PLUS, I've seen many honey bees on the flowers. After a good 8 years of decline they seem to have returned strong this year. That's a very good thing. Hey, here's something interesting...Bryan just told me that honey bees are not native to North America. He's a flippin' nature geenyus!

Voiceovers and nature...is there anything better?

Seen any creepy crawly, slithering, jumping, hopping, barking, mewing visitors at your place?

Tom

Airtran direct to Orlando from Asheville (includes flight schedule)

Since SunSpots recording studios are near Orlando and Asheville we were really excited to hear about this news this morning. Airtran Airways just announced service to Orlando International Airport (MCO) with nonstop flights from Asheville Regional Airport (AVL)

Flights begin June 11 from Asheville (AVL) and are not daily.
Here's the nonstop service schedule between Asheville and Orlando from Airtran's site:

From	To	Flight	Departs	Arrives	Frequency
Asheville	Orlando	1276	1:10 p.m.	2:45 p.m.	Tue, Thurs, Sat
Orlando	Asheville	1275	10:55 a.m.	12:35 p.m.	Tue, Thurs, Sat

Now you can do a voiceover session with SunSpots up in the mountains of North Carolina during the summer days of Florida or do the reverse in the winter when Asheville is cold and grey and catch some rays in Central Florida. 

Personally, this is great news as I frequently drive back and forth between the two studios. It's a long 9 hour drive and my dog, Buster, still refuses to get behind the wheel. He just curls up in the back of the van and sleeps the whole way! Him and his lack of opposable thumbs! The last time I flew from AVL to MCO was on USAIR. We lost one engine soon after takeoff and had to do an emergency landing in Columbia, SC. I haven't flown much since. I think I will now that Airtran is back in AVL. They quit service to Orlando a few years ago for business reasons. Support them if you can and I'm sure I'll see you on the flights back and forth. I'll be the guy gripping the armrests nervously, but loving cutting 6 hours or more out of the commute. Thanks to Airtran and the Asheville Airport for getting them back.

Why should you use Twitter? Here's 5 good reasons to get Tweeting.

I think it was after I heard that a young man saved himself from a stay at an Egyptian jail using Twitter that I began to think about how we could use Twitter at SunSpots. One of the things that I love about the web is developing relationships with friends and potential clients and voice talent and enhancing those existing relationships with Twitter updates or Tweets. Since joining I've posted hundreds of tweets and have a few hundred followers ranging from artists, advertising execs, fellow online marketers, old friends and others. The electronic village is making our world smaller and more intimate in a very good way.

Why should you use Twitter? There are many reasons to do so and these are just a few:

1. Increase your web presence. Twitter offers you the opportunity to have your brand/company/message out there with no cost involved. I've seen Tweets (the Twitter messages) show up in Google search results. Proving that it helps your seo efforts.


2. Keep in contact with your clients and vendors. Emails are becoming less a marketing tool as social media kicks in. Let everyone know your business in a very concise manner!


3. Announce company news and sales events or special pricing and discounts for you and/or your client.


4. Quick review of products and services. An example, "We found a great new microphone that we use in our voiceover booths...".


5. Share news about your community and yourself. Here's the "social" of social marketing in action. We're able to post what's new in our lives and our community with informal posts. These types of posts help others see who we are, innovative and creative, rather than just what we offer, voice talent and creative audio production. Be careful, it's easy to become a Tweet Addict.

We'd love to hear what's new in your world. Follow the entire SunSpots staff on Twitter:
Bryan engineering/web & graphics design at SunSpots NC
Deb booking sessions at SunSpots FL
Janet managing/accounting in SunSpots NC
Jay engineering/producing/voice talent at SunSpots NC
Jen scheduling sessions at SunSpots FL
Marty running the day at SunSpots FL
Tera engineering/producing/scheduling at SunSpots FL
Tom voice talent/web marketing/traveling back and forth to SunSpots FL & NC
Xavier engineer/producer/spanish coordinator/English & Spanish voice talent at SunSpots FL
Zak engineer/producer/voice talent & managing SunSpots FL

To keep your audience interested make sure that your tweets are more than just commercial announcements. I try to insert information about what I'm doing, festival or concert announcements, news specific to our studio locations near Asheville and Orlando, news announcements and so on. Those that use Twitter for just "we have such and such on sale" will eventually lose their followers. Like any good web site, it's all about content and not just, "HEY! BUY SOMETHING FROM US!". Use tinyurl.com to shrink your lengthy web addresses so that they fit easily into the 140 character Twitter format.

We hope to follow your Tweets soon.
Tom

Happy Birthday SunSpots Audio Engineer and Voice Talent Jay Patrick!

Whoops! Jay Patrick's birthday was this past weekend and I'm late getting him his cake...

Jay is SunSpots Productions original audio engineer and has been creating award winning audio since 1986. Jay started in radio, like Zak and I did.

Jay began in radio in Houston, Texas and even produced parody spots for Glenn Beck when Beck was on the air in Baltimore, MD.


He moved to Asheville, North Carolina in 1993 and began working with what was then known as The Cassidy Company in 1995. The Cassidy Company grew beyond voice talent Tom Cassidy and became SunSpots Productions a year later. Within a few years and with Jay's help and leadership, SunSpots became a world leader in supplying voiceover talent and creative audio production to the advertising industry.

In addition to being a superb audio engineer and director Jay also voices. Here's Jay Patrick's voiceover demo.


Jay's also involved in scouts in the Asheville area, plays guitar and bass and enjoys spending time on the trails around Asheville on his mountain bike. He's married and has 3 kids.

Happy belated birthday Jay, from everyone at SunSpots!
Tom

How do you keep your nose happy?

As a voice talent and severe allergy sufferer I was wondering how other voiceover talent survive the allergy season? It's so tough for me that at one time I was getting 6 shots every 3 days. I felt like a human pincushion! It did help a bit I think. Had to give up my cats Porky and Melvin though. (They went to a loving home thankfully.) The question is, how do you do your job as a voice talent and deal with your allergies, if you have them of course. When I'm at our Asheville studios Janet keeps tossing Claritin at me. I eat 'em like Tic Tacs! Allegra's not bad, but the Claritin seems to do the job for me if I double the dose. I thought when I drove to Florida last week I'd avoid the pollen, but nope! The trees around Orlando are peaking. I just heard my voice on a spot for Courtesy Toyota and (lol) I could hear a little of the stuffy sound. 

How do you handle allergies and stuffy nose issues as a talent? (other than taking a voiceover vacation for 2 months in Spring) ;-)

We would all appreciate your tips in how you handle allergy season.