# Trailer Management for OTT Platforms | Vodlix **Source:** https://vodlix.com/features/trailers-management **Summary:** Attach a trailer to any title in MP4, MOV, AVI, MKV or WebM, reuse trailers across a franchise, and publish a trailer before the film it promotes. **Publisher:** Vodlix --- ## Trailers Management Upload a trailer, reuse one you already have, and let the newest become the published one. The thirty seconds that decide whether anybody watches the rest. - **Feature Plan:** 2 - back-end - core-platform ## The Thirty Seconds That Sell the Two Hours Every title can carry its own trailer, uploaded in whatever format you were sent or reused from something already in your library. The newest one becomes the published trailer, so updating a campaign is one upload rather than a support ticket. ### Nobody Reads the Synopsis A viewer scrolling a catalogue gives each title about a second, and in that second a poster does most of the work and a synopsis does almost none. What actually converts browsing into watching is a trailer, because it answers in fifteen seconds a question that three paragraphs of description cannot. This is well understood by everybody who commissions content and routinely forgotten by the people wiring up a platform, which is how you end up with a beautiful catalogue where half the titles have nothing to show. Vodlix treats the trailer as part of the title rather than as an afterthought, attached in the same place as the media, the artwork and the pricing, so adding one is a step in publishing rather than a separate project. #### Whatever you were sent MP4, MOV, AVI, MKV and WebM are all accepted, which matters because a distributor sends you what they have rather than what your platform prefers. No converting anything first. #### The newest one wins Add a trailer and it becomes the published one automatically. Swapping a teaser for a full trailer when a campaign moves on is an upload, not a configuration change somebody has to remember. #### Reuse what you have A trailer already in your library can be attached to another title rather than uploaded twice, which is how a franchise or a season shares one piece of promotional footage. ### Drop the File and Move On Uploading is a drop zone and a file picker, which is all it should ever have been. The supported formats are listed on the screen rather than discovered by failure, so you know before you start whether the file a distributor sent will work. From there the trailer is transcoded the same way your main media is, which means it arrives at the viewer in the right size for whatever they are watching on rather than as a large file that stalls on a phone. That part is covered under [video uploading and transcoding](/features/video-uploading-transcoding), and it applies to trailers for the same reason it applies to features. A trailer that buffers is worse than no trailer, because you have taken somebody's attention and then wasted it. - mx-auto ### Published Separately From the Title A trailer has its own published state, which sounds like a small detail and is the thing that makes launches possible. It means a trailer can be live while the film behind it is still a draft, which is exactly what you want in the weeks before a premiere. People can watch the trailer, add the title to their list, and be waiting when it drops. Each trailer carries its own duration and identifier, and old ones stay attached rather than being destroyed when you add a new one, so going back to a previous cut is a choice rather than another upload. The scheduling that makes the rest of it work is described under [countdown and premiere](/features/countdown-premiere), and the title itself is managed through [movies management](/features/movies-management) or [series management](/features/series-management). ### Where the Trailer Actually Appears A trailer is only worth uploading if viewers meet it. On the web it is a button on the title alongside Play, so somebody undecided has an option that is not a commitment. On television the same choice sits in the title menu where a remote can reach it. It plays in your own [video player](/features/customizable-video-player) rather than in something bolted on, which means your branding, your controls and your quality settings all apply to it. Because the trailer is attached to the title rather than to a page, it travels wherever the title appears, including rows you have curated through [content lists](/features/content-lists) and anywhere a viewer arrives from [search](/features/content-search). One upload, every surface. **Q: What video formats can I upload a trailer in?** MP4, MOV, AVI, MKV and WebM. That range matters more than it sounds, because a distributor or a production company sends you whatever they happen to have, and needing to convert every file first is the kind of small friction that quietly means trailers do not get added at all. **Q: Can a title have more than one trailer?** Yes. Trailers stay attached rather than replacing each other, and the most recent one you add becomes the published trailer for that title. That means a teaser can be replaced by a full trailer as a campaign develops without losing the earlier cut. **Q: Can I use the same trailer on more than one title?** You can add an existing trailer rather than uploading a new file, which is the sensible route when a franchise, a season or a collection shares one piece of promotional footage. It also means one file rather than several copies taking up storage. **Q: Can a trailer be live before the film is?** Yes, and this is the main reason trailers carry their own published state. A trailer can be visible while the title behind it is still a draft, so viewers can watch it, add the title to their list, and be waiting when the premiere lands. **Q: Are trailers transcoded like the main content?** They are, and they should be. A trailer is usually the first video a new viewer plays on your service, so it is the worst possible place to serve an unoptimised file. It goes through the same pipeline and arrives at the right size for whatever the viewer is on. **Q: Where do viewers see the trailer?** On the title itself, as a button beside Play on the web and as an action in the title menu on television. It plays in your own player, so the branding and controls are the same ones the rest of your service uses rather than something visibly different. **Q: Do I need a trailer for every title?** No, and titles work perfectly well without one. That said, a trailer is the single cheapest thing you can add to improve how often a title gets started, because it answers in seconds what a synopsis cannot. If you are prioritising, start with whatever you are actively promoting. **Q: Can I remove a trailer after adding it?** Yes. Each trailer can be edited or deleted from the same list, so a cut you are no longer allowed to show or a file that turned out to be the wrong one can be taken down directly rather than needing anybody technical.