FrontRunner Professional Uses Funeral Video Slideshows To Celebrate Deceased
Recently, Animoto launched the Animoto Developer Platform, which transforms pictures, music, video clips, and text into Animoto video slideshows through various options of integration.
Frontrunner Professional integrates with Quickstart to provide funeral management software and funeral home website design, funeral webcasting, and tribute video software.
The FrontRunner Book of Memories™ is an online tribute website for the deceased, and includes several interactive components that allow family and friends to leave online condolences and upload pictures. A simple user interface was implemented to allow the funeral home to select the FrontRunner theme and photos to be used in the video. Behind the scenes, the photos and the theme-based video and image assets are collated and passed over to Animoto via the Quickstart API. “The easiest part of the DVT project was implementing the API itself. Animoto has done a nice job of keeping the API design simple, and includes good documentation and code samples”.
We got to hear more from FrontRunner President/CEO Kevin Montroy about their integration with our Quickstart.
Have you seen any major changes in the funeral service industry? What changes do you think are up ahead?
The funeral profession has seen more changes in the past 5 years than it has experienced in the past 100 years. Today consumers are demanding more. They are more educated and sophisticated in using the power of the internet to find the answers they are looking for and will support those firms who support their search.
In this rapidly changing market, society is more comfortable honoring the life than to mourn the death. That’s where Digital Video Tributes play a critical role for the future of funeral service. They help people say good-bye while helping them to remember at the same time.
We have always maintained that in this changing market, if we are not proactive, our professions biggest competition will not come in the form of the large corporate conglomerates, but rather from Universal Studios and Warner Bros.
Combining the world-class features of the Animoto and FrontRunner’s vast depth of market understanding and creative expertise, we have empowered funeral professionals with the ability to create breathtaking tribute videos of cinematic quality in-house -in minutes. The introduction of this new standard for tribute videos offers a level of service never seen by the profession before and allows our clients to dramatically differentiate themselves from their competitors.
How did you come across Animoto?
Here is the beauty and power of search engines. FrontRunner was poised to begin development of our solution in-house. One laid-back weekend on the front porch, I decided to look a little deeper to see if in fact there was already something developed that would fit our needs. I stumbled upon Animoto that day for the first time. Since the click of that first sample video, I continue to be impressed with the power, flexibility and more importantly, the quality of output of Animoto. I made contact immediately, and the rest is history.
Tell us about the Digital Video Tribute and how Animoto fits in.
The Digital Video Tribute program or “DVT” was our way of helping funeral professionals get outside the stigma of the aging “DVD” program. While many firms seemed complacent with little more than a PowerPoint slideshow, our partnership with Animoto has opened the profession up to a truly first class treasured memory, forging a new “Standard of Service” for the families and communities they serve.
By creating the foundation for multiple outputs including website, memory drive, shared media, DVD and others, we have dramatically increased the shared viewer experience. At the same time, our valued clients reap the benefits of an increase exposure of their firm while families and friends find comfort in having a cherished memory forever.
We look forward to working closely with Animoto and their team to continue to evolve the DVT program to an even higher level.