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Thumbnail badges on Vimeo OTT

Thumbnail badges let you automatically and manually overlay status labels on your content thumbnails across your website and branded apps. Badges like New, New Episode, and Leaving Soon appear automatically based on content dates, while badges like Top 10, Exclusive, and Original can be manually applied to individual videos and collections. This article explains how to configure global badge settings, enable or disable individual badges, and assign manual badges to your content.

In this article:

What are thumbnail badges?

Thumbnail badges are small text overlays that appear on the corner of your content thumbnails. They help viewers quickly identify new, expiring, or highlighted content as they browse your site and apps. Badges are displayed across all platforms, including web, iOS, Android, and TV apps (Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and more).

You can manage all badge settings from your OTT admin under Content > Thumbnail Badges.

Types of thumbnail badges

There are two types of thumbnail badges:

Automatic badges are displayed based on content dates. Once enabled, they appear and disappear without any manual action required. Automatic badges include:

  • New — Appears on videos published within a number of days you define (e.g., the last 1 day).
  • New Episode — Appears on series (collections) that contain an episode published within the "New" threshold you define.
  • Leaving Soon — Appears on videos that are scheduled to be removed within a number of days you define (e.g., the next 30 days).

Manual badges must be assigned to individual videos or collections by the seller. Manual badges include:

  • Top 10 — Highlight top-performing content.
  • Exclusive — Display on exclusive or premium content.
  • Original — Display on original productions.

How to configure global badge settings

Global settings control the default appearance and behavior of all badges across your site. To configure them:

  1. In your OTT admin, navigate to Content > Thumbnail Badges.
  2. Under Global Settings, configure the following options:
    • Position: Choose whether badges appear in the Top Left or Top Right corner of the thumbnail.
    • Font Weight: Select Medium (500) or Bold (700).
    • Font Family: Customize using Google Fonts (Vimeo-hosted fonts).
    • Default Background Color and Default Label Color: Set the hex color values for your primary badge color scheme.
    • Alternative Background Color and Alternative Label Color: Set a secondary color scheme that you can apply to specific badges.
    A live preview will show how badges appear with the Default and Alternative color schemes.
  3. Set the thresholds for automatic badges:
    • "New" badge threshold (days): Enter the number of days after publishing during which the "New" badge should appear (e.g., 1 day).
    • "Leaving Soon" badge threshold (days): Enter the number of days before a video's scheduled removal during which the "Leaving Soon" badge should appear (e.g., 30 days).
  4. Click Save to apply your changes.

How to enable or disable individual badges

Under Badge Settings on the Thumbnail Badges page, you can control which badges are active on your site.

  1. Navigate to Content > Thumbnail Badges and scroll down to Badge Settings.
  2. For each badge (New, New Episode, Leaving Soon, Top 10, Exclusive, Original), use the Enabled checkbox to turn it on or off.
  3. Click Save to apply your changes.

💡Tip: Automatic badges (New, New Episode, Leaving Soon) will begin appearing immediately once enabled — no further action is needed. Manual badges (Top 10, Exclusive, Original) require you to assign them to specific videos or collections (see below).

How to customize individual badge appearance

Each badge can have its own appearance settings, allowing you to visually differentiate badge types.

  1. In the Badge Settings section, click Toggle advanced options next to the badge you want to customize.
  2. Configure the following options:
    • Color Scheme: Choose from Default (uses Global Settings colors), Alternative (uses the alternative color scheme), or Custom (set unique colors for this badge).
    • Font Weight (optional): Override the global font weight for this specific badge, or select Use global weight to inherit the global setting.
    • Font Family (optional): Override the global font family for this specific badge, or leave as Use global font family to inherit the global setting.
  3. Click Save to apply your changes.

How to assign manual badges to videos and collections

Manual badges (Top 10, Exclusive, Original) need to be assigned individually to the videos or collections where you want them to appear.

  1. In your OTT admin, go to Content > Videos and select the video you want to badge. To badge a collection, go to Content > Collections and select the collection.
  2. On the edit page, scroll down to the Thumbnail Badges section under General settings.
  3. Select the manual badges you want to display on this content:
    • Top 10 — Display this badge to highlight top-performing content.
    • Exclusive — Display this badge for exclusive or premium content.
    • Original — Display this badge for original productions.
  4. Click Save in the upper right corner.

⚠️Note: Automatic badges (New, New Episode, Leaving Soon) are displayed based on content dates and cannot be manually assigned. They will appear automatically on eligible content when enabled.

Badge display limits

Each thumbnail can display a maximum of two (2) badges at the same time. If a video or collection qualifies for more than two badges (for example, it is both "New" and has been marked as "Exclusive" and "Original"), only two will be shown.

💡Tip: Keep this limit in mind when combining automatic and manual badges on the same content. For best results, apply manual badges selectively to avoid conflicts with automatic badges.

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