Animoto Interview: CEO Brad Jefferson On Animoto Pro, Facebook Connect & The Company's Vision

Last week, Animoto announced the release of their first collection of video styles for professional users, as well as launched a monthly subscription option for Animoto Pro, the site's business product. Hearing this news, I wondered what the launch of these new professional products meant for the future of the video slideshow tool - are they taking a new direction, catering to professional clients? Or are they simply broadening their product offering? I had the opportunity to ask CEO Brad Jefferson these questions and more. Find out what he had to say after the jump. Before we get into the interview, here's a little background on Animoto for those of you who aren't familiar with it. Founded in 2006 and launched in 2007, Animoto is a tool that lets users easily create video slideshows with user-selected images, video clips and music. You can check out an example below of a video that I created for free in Animoto, starring none other than my adorable dog. Animoto introduces their new Elegance collection of video styles, as well as their new monthly pro subscription service in a press release last week, on July 27, 2010. They also announced the release of a new simple video style called Simplicity, which is available at no cost to all users. The company describes the Animoto Pro monthly subscription service in their press release: "With the introduction of monthly pricing, Animoto Pro subscriptions are now available for $39 per month or $249 per year. Animoto Pro subscriptions allow users to create an unlimited number of unbranded, full-length, high-resolution videos. The Elegance style collection is included in the Pro subscription at no extra cost, while the new Simplicity style is available to all users at no extra cost." And now on to the interview. Below you will find Brad's answers to my questions about Animoto Pro, the new video styles, the Animoto Facebook application and more. ST: Earlier this week you launched your first collection of video styles for professional users. Can this be taken as an indication that Animoto is moving away from the amateur consumer and leaning towards professional photographers and artists? BJ: Our launch of pro-exclusive styles isn't an indication of a move away from general consumers, but rather, an effort to better serve each of our user groups. Following the launch of video styles aimed at consumers earlier this year, the pro-exclusive Elegance collection represents a continuation of our effort to give our business users features especially tailored to their needs. From a mom sharing family vacation pictures to a business creating video content for their website, our goal is to make Animoto the most robust, easy to use video creation tool. ST: How successful has the Animoto Pro subscription been? Are a lot of people paying to subscribe? BJ: Animoto Pro has exceeded our expectations. Although they represent a small percentage of our users, businesses users have quickly become an important part of our business. It's the success that we've had in this area that drove the decision to invest in enhanced features and functionality for this group. All product decisions are based on supporting the unique needs of each user, and businesses use Animoto in a much different way than consumers, which is why we're focused on given them features that address their use case. ST: What types of videos are Animoto Pro subscribers using the service for? BJ: We've been impressed with the creative ways in which Animoto has been used. Unlike the consumer product, where Animoto is all about sharing an experience, our Pro users rely on Animoto as a marketing tool and a communication tool. From hotels creating videos showcasing amenities to ad agencies creating pitch videos on the fly, and from fortune 500 companies using Animoto as an HR communication tool to photographers turning wedding photos into a new product they resell to their clients, we've been really impressed with the creative ways that businesses are using Animoto. For businesses it's much more than photo sharing; it's about increasing visibility, creating sticky web content, building deeper relationships with existing clients and starting a dialog with new ones. Animoto has also become a great way for business to go where their clients and be relevant - in Facebook. ST: What is going on currently with Animoto on Facebook? Are you continuing to develop the Facebook app? BJ: We're not actively building out the Facebook app. It's still out there, and we've still got millions of users, but we're not trying to grow it. Instead, we're looking at Facebook Connect as a much more meaningful way to integrate with Facebook and that integration started with the inclusion of the Facebook "Like" button on our Animoto.com player page, which we launched on Tuesday. ST: When Animoto first launched in 2007 what was your vision? Has it changed over the years? BJ: The inspiration for starting Animoto was that we felt like slideshows were painfully boring, and there weren't any great tools that let regular people quickly and easily share their photos in a compelling way. Add to that the prevalence of low-quality video facilitated by YouTube, and we felt that there had to be a better way. A better way to share photos, and a better way to create polished video like what you see on television (remember, a few of our founders hail from MTV and ABC). Animoto was originally aimed at improving consumer photo sharing, but quickly we started to see that an enhanced Animoto would be a very valuable tool for businesses. So, one year after the public launch of Animoto, we launched Animoto for Business (now Animoto Pro). Since launch the general idea has stayed the same - make it fast, easy and affordable to create professional-quality video. While that continues to drive us, we continue to respond to our users and to opportunities. ST: What would you consider some of the best users for Animoto? BJ: More than anything, we've been amazed at the massive variety of ways that people are using Animoto. From wedding proposals and vacation videos, to year-in-review videos and baby announcements, amateurs are using Animoto for photo sharing and for story telling. Businesses are using Animoto to create video for: their website, product advertisements, create sticky content for social networking, video for tradeshow displays, general marketing purposes, communicating to existing customers (holiday greeting videos), and photographers are even creating videos that they resell to their clients - in some cases for up to $1600. We've really enjoyed seeing the extremely creative ways that people and businesses are using Animoto. It's very inspiring, and it pushes us to keep innovating. Image Credit: @superamit on Flickr

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Animoto Interview: CEO Brad Jefferson On Animoto Pro, Facebook Connect & The Company's Vision

Megan O'Neill

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Megan O'Neill