A voice over brief that actually gets results tells me three things in the first thirty seconds: what you're selling, who's listening, and what you want them to feel. Everything else is detail. Most briefs I receive are either a dissertation on brand philosophy or three words that could mean anything. Both waste time and money.
After twenty years recording for brands like Nike, Ford, and Netflix, I've seen the pattern repeat a thousand times. The clearest briefs produce the best work on the first or second take. The vague ones drag on for hours, burning through revisions until someone finally says what they actually wanted.
Why Most Briefs Fail Before Recording Starts
The problem starts with how briefs get written. Usually someone in marketing drafts a document based on internal conversations that happened weeks ago. By the time it reaches the voice over artist, it's been filtered through three departments and stripped of anything useful. What arrives is either hopelessly generic or contradictory.
I recently received a brief that asked for "warm but professional, energetic but calm, conversational but authoritative." Those aren't directions. Those are antonyms. And when I asked for clarification, the response was "just use your judgment." Great. My judgment is that this brief needs to be rewritten before we waste studio time.
A 2022 report from the Association of National Advertisers found that 67% of marketing professionals cite unclear briefs as a primary cause of project delays and cost overruns. That tracks with my experience exactly.
What a Brief Actually Needs
Here's what I need to deliver on the first take:
The audience. Not "adults 18-54" but something real. Are these bilingual millennials in Los Angeles who consume content in both languages? First-generation immigrants who prefer Spanish for emotional content? Factory workers taking compliance training? The more specific, the better my interpretation will be.
The tone in concrete terms. "Friendly" means nothing. "Like explaining something important to a younger cousin you respect" means everything. Reference a commercial you like, a specific narrator, a mood. Give me something to grab onto.
The accent. And here I will always recommend neutral Spanish. Latin American markets are fragmented by regional rivalries that most non-native speakers underestimate entirely. According to Pew Research Center, the U.S. Hispanic population includes people from more than 20 countries of origin, each with distinct accent associations. A Mexican accent alienates Colombians. An Argentine accent makes Mexicans laugh. Neutral Spanish sidesteps all of it.
The length constraints. Spanish runs about 30% longer than English. If your English script fits perfectly into 30 seconds, your Spanish version will either need to be cut or delivered at an unnatural pace that sounds rushed and desperate.
The Accent Section Deserves Its Own Conversation
Most briefs either skip the accent question entirely or specify something random. "I want a Colombian accent" appears constantly on casting platforms without any strategic reasoning behind it. Usually it's because someone on the team has a Colombian friend whose Spanish they happen to like.
But here's the thing: have you ever listened to an ad and felt vaguely uncomfortable without knowing exactly why? That discomfort often comes from an accent that triggers associations the brand didn't intend. A Caribbean accent might feel too casual for financial services. A Rioplatense accent from Argentina is so distinctive that it dominates the message. (I should know — I'm Argentine, and I spent years learning to neutralize it for pan-Latino campaigns.)
If your campaign targets the U.S. Latino market, neutral Spanish eliminates regional friction entirely. It's a constructed accent that belongs to no single country and offends no one.
The Script Problem Nobody Mentions in the Brief
Your English script cannot simply be translated and handed to me. Spanish is structurally different — longer sentences, different rhythm, verb conjugations that add syllables. A direct translation of "Get yours today" becomes "Obtén el tuyo hoy" in Spanish, which is already 30% more syllables, and that's one of the simpler examples.
The brief should acknowledge whether the script has been adapted for Spanish or just translated. If it's been adapted by someone who understands the pacing requirements, we're in good shape. If it was run through a translation service and nobody checked whether it actually fits the timing, we have a problem that will surface in the recording session when I'm rushing through lines to hit the mark.
And when I say "adapted," I mean by a native speaker. A non-native cannot hear the rhythmic problems because the subtleties are too complex for an ear that didn't grow up inside the language. The U.S. Census Bureau reports that while 41 million people speak Spanish at home in the United States, fluency levels and native intuition vary dramatically — heritage speakers often lack the ear for written Spanish that localization requires.
Include the Music If You Have It
This is such a simple thing that improves results dramatically. If I know the music bed that will play under my voice, I can match its energy and pacing instinctively. Recording against silence and hoping it works with upbeat music later is a gamble that usually loses.
The brief should include: the track itself (even a temp track helps), the general mood intended, and whether the voice should sit above the music or blend into it. These details take thirty seconds to include and save hours of revision.
What "Don't Sound Like a Voice Over" Actually Means
Clients have been saying this for at least ten years. They've heard it somewhere, it sounds sophisticated, and they include it in every brief. But what they actually mean is: don't sound like a 1950s radio announcer reading the phone book.
They do want a voice over professional. They want someone who speaks clearly, paces correctly, lands the emphasis on the right words, and delivers without verbal stumbles. They just don't want the theatrical quality of old broadcast narration. This direction is so common that every working professional has heard it a thousand times. You don't need to include it unless you're specifically trying to communicate something else — and if you are, be specific about what that sounds like.
The Reference Problem
Good briefs include references. Bad briefs include references that contradict each other or that were chosen by different people on the team who never discussed them. The worst briefs include no references at all and expect the voice over artist to read minds.
If you have a reference, include it. If you have three references from three team members, pick one and stick with it. If you're not sure what you want, say that directly — an honest "we're figuring this out and need your help" is more useful than fake certainty that evaporates the moment you hear the first take.
A Brief Is a Communication Tool
The brief exists to communicate between people who aren't in the same room and might never speak directly. Treat it that way. Write it like you're explaining the project to someone intelligent who hasn't been in your internal meetings. Assume I know nothing about your brand except what you tell me, because that's usually true.
Include the obvious things: deadlines, file format preferences, whether you'll be directing live via Source Connect or reviewing takes asynchronously. And if there's anything unusual about the project — legal restrictions, specific pronunciations, words that must be stressed — put it in the brief rather than assuming I'll figure it out.
The result of a clear brief is usually a successful first take. The result of a vague brief is a long day for everyone involved.
Need a Spanish voice over for your next project? Get in touch and I'll get back to you within the hour.
