Includes an NFDA Convention Highlight

 

Let’s begin with an announcement that came from last week’s National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA) convention in Charlotte, North Carolina.  Here’s that announcement:

 

Chptr, creator of the Chptr Local Media Distribution Network, has been named the winner of the 2026 National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA) Innovation Award. The award was presented October 26 during the Opening General Session of the 2026 NFDA International Convention & Expo in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Innovation Award is sponsored by ASD – Answering Service for Directors

 

The NFDA Innovation Award recognizes funeral service suppliers and vendors that bring originality, creativity and thoughtful problem-solving to the profession. Chptr earned the top honor for its approach to connecting funeral homes with local media and creating new opportunities for families to share obituary and memorial content throughout their communities.

 

About the Chptr Local Media Distribution Network

Chptr enables funeral homes to distribute death notices, service information, memorial videos and life stories across local television, radio, digital news, streaming and community media through a single workflow.

 

Funeral homes submit information once, and Chptr formats, schedules and distributes the content through a network of more than 200 local media outlets nationwide. By connecting funeral homes directly with local media organizations, Chptr expands obituary distribution beyond funeral home websites and traditional newspaper notices, helping families share information and stories in more of the places where people in their communities get their news and information.

 

 

On the heels of that announcement Chptr has now announced the launch of ChptrOne, a fully managed year-round marketing program designed specifically for funeral homes.  According to a press release from ChptrOne, “The program unifies strategy, creative production, media buying, distribution, and reporting into one coordinated service, helping funeral homes maintain a consistent community presence while letting funeral directors focus on serving families.”

 

This 3-minute video titled “Meet ChptrOne:  Fully managed marketing for funeral homes” will explain their new inclusive marketing program to you.

 

According to Bob Arrington, Senior Vice President of Funeral Home Services at Chptr, “Funeral homes have powerful stories to tell.  The opportunity is to connect that voice with the distribution it needs to reach more families. ChptrOne brings those pieces together so funeral homes can spend less time managing the marketing and more time building the kind of presence that actually compounds.”

 

You may have heard of Chptr’s national obituary network that now provides the foundation for this program.  Again according to the Chptr press release, “Since beginning televised obituary distribution in 2024, the company has aired nearly 10,000 obituaries, served more than 400 funeral homes, reached over 200 communities, and expanded its distribution capability to every U.S. TV market.”

 

For more information you can reach the Chptr website here.

 

Funeral Director Daily take:  I’ll admit it.  I was late to the Chptr bandwagon.  I noticed the company talking about putting obituaries on television and as one who has advertised on both cable and network affiliates television programming I could not understand the fundamentals behind the cost/value proposition.

 

 

 

I learned a little more about Chptr at the NFDA Convention, including seeing them honored with the NFDA Innovation Award at the Opening Session.  And knowing a couple of the excellent runner-up products I deduced that I needed to learn what put Chptr into the “Winner’s Circle” at the NASCAR themed convention!!!

 

The above linked video explained a lot to me.  Chptr is not simply an obituary announcement, it is a totally  “integrated campaign across cable and local broadcast television, radio, streaming audio, streaming TV, and Facebook, depending on market and package. Each funeral home receives customized creative featuring its people, stories, services, and community involvement, with new campaign assets produced every four weeks.”

 

When I operated our funeral home I was really involved in the marketing and promotion of our business on cable television, radio, newspaper, and billboards.  I spent a lot of time focusing the message and balancing the marketing budget to do so.

 

It appears to me that if I had Chptr at that time they would have been able to do all of that for me, and in today’s world of social media, they would balance those placements and budgets as well.

 

I’ve seen proper marketing work very well in creating an image build and in bringing in more client families when done properly and professionally.  If you operate a funeral home you might want to look at Chptr to see if they can help you with those tasks. . . . Take a look at the video first and you will get an idea of what they can do for you.

 

More news from the world of Death Care:

• Banks refund victims of fake funeral plans.  BBC News (Great Britain)
• In HelloNation, funeral service expert J. Kelsey Dickinson breaks down the advantages of pre-planning funeral services.  Yahoo Finance
• 5 of the most haunting cemetery tours in the U.S.  Mental Floss
• 19th Century cemetery excavated in Copenhagen.  Archaeology Magazine
• “Living next door to Death”:  Neighbors oppose proposed Randallstown crematory.  Video news story and print article.  WMAR ABC-Channel 2 Baltimore (MD)

 

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