Launch Landing Page Template for an AI-powered Vertical Video Series

Hook: Stop launching thin coming-soon pages that fail mobile viewers

Creators and publishers: you know the pain — low waitlist signups, static hero images, and zero momentum on launch day. In 2026, with attention split across vertical short-form series and AI-driven discovery, the old desktop-first coming-soon template just won’t cut it. You need a mobile-first, episodic launch page built to convert phone-first audiences and capture data for personalization before day one.

The evolution in 2026: why vertical episodic landing pages matter now

Late 2025 and early 2026 accelerated three trends that directly change how you build a launch landing page:

• Mobile-first viewing is dominant — vertical screens are the default for short, episodic microdramas.
• AI-powered discovery and personalization (inspired by platforms like Holywater) means your page can feed signals that influence recommendation engines before launch.
• Short serialized formats (microdrama, vertical episodes) demand teaser-driven funnels and episode-based hooks instead of a single product page.

That means your coming-soon page should do four things out of the gate: grab attention with a mobile hero treatment, pre-sell with an episode teaser strip, capture a waitlist and preferences, and deliver AI personalization hooks that feed systems downstream.

High-level template: what a high-converting mobile-first episodic coming-soon page looks like

1. Mobile Hero Treatment — immersive, auto-play safe, single-column focus.
2. Episode Teaser Strip — swipeable vertical cards with 10–20s teasers or animated thumbnails.
3. Waitlist Capture — a single-field first interaction (phone or email) followed by a 1-question preference microform.
4. AI Personalization Hooks — preference signals, micro-interactions, and dynamic thumbnails that feed your recommendation engine.
5. Social Proof & Scarcity — live counter, influencer endorsements, and early-access tiers.
6. Conversion-Optimized CTAs — contextual CTAs (Join Waitlist / Get Episode 1 Early / Send Me a Clip).

Section 1 — Mobile hero treatment: first 3 seconds to win attention

Mobile-first hero design is about speed, motion, and clarity. The goal: arrest scroll and get a signup action within the first screenful.

Design & motion rules

• Single-column layout with a 9:16 hero canvas sized for phones.
• Use a 15–30s autoplay teaser loop muted by default and with a clear tap-to-unmute affordance.
• Overlay: concise headline (6–10 words), 1-line value prop, and single CTA button.
• Load media via optimized WebP/AVIF and small H.264/hevc segment for instant start; lazy-load deeper assets.

Headline + CTA templates

Copy that converts tends to be specific, time-bound, and benefit-led. Use one of these:

• Headline: "A microdrama for your commute — Episode 1 drops Mar 2026." Subhead: "Swipe, tap, binge 90-second episodes." CTA: "Join the First Wave"
• Headline: "Meet Ava — a secret in 6 vertical clips." Subhead: "Get Episode 1 before anyone else." CTA: "Get Early Access"
• Headline: "This is short TV for your phone." Subhead: "Vote on endings, shape the story." CTA: "Reserve My Spot"

Recommendation: A/B test CTA verbs (Join / Reserve / Get) and microcopy (First Wave / Early Access / Premiere Invite).

Section 2 — Episode teaser strip: serialize curiosity

The episode strip is the differentiator for episodic shows. It turns curiosity into intent by previewing narrative beats and creating a binge roadmap.

Structure for mobile

• Horizontal, swipeable strip with 3–6 cards visible by default; each card is a 9:16 thumbnail with 10–20s teaser.
• Microcopy per card: episode number, 2–4 word logline, and a social hook ("Cliffhanger" / "You decide").
• Progress markers and expected runtime per episode (e.g., "Ep 1 — 90s") to set commitment expectations.

Teaser card copy examples

• Ep 1 — "Doorbell" — "A wrong knock. Everything changes."
• Ep 2 — "Swipe" — "A choice you can’t take back."
• Ep 3 — "Confession" — "One secret, three suspects."

Tip: Add a tiny "Save for Later" heart and an option to "Send Clip" — both are signals that boost engagement and provide explicit personalization data.

Section 3 — Waitlist capture that actually converts

Converting mobile visitors into waitlist subscribers requires minimal friction and immediate value. Use a two-step capture flow: one required field, then one preference question.

Two-step capture flow

1. Step 1: Single-field input (email or phone). CTA: "Get Episode 1"
2. Step 2 (microform, optional): one preference question to improve personalization — genre, favorite character type, or preferred notification channel.

Why two steps? Because commitment bias increases after a small action — visitors who enter an email are more likely to answer a one-question preference survey.

Microform examples (copy-ready)

• Single-field placeholder: "your@email.com or +1 555 555 5555"
• Follow-up question: "Which hook would make you watch Ep 1?" — Options: "Twist", "Romance", "Mystery", "Action"
• Confirmation message: "You're in. Expect Episode 1 on Mar 8 — pick your premiere reminder."

Conversion optimization: pre-fill the country code for phone inputs, validate emails client-side, and offer an instant micro-reward (exclusive clip or ringtone) to lift conversions 8–14% on mobile.

Section 4 — AI-driven personalization hooks (inspired by Holywater-style platforms)

In 2026 the smartest landing pages don’t just collect emails — they collect signals. These signals feed AI recommendation models (internal or third-party) to tailor on-platform discovery. Implement these hooks today and own early personalization data.

What to capture as signals

• Declared preferences — genre, pace, endings preferred.
• Behavioral micro-signals — which teaser cards were tapped, time spent on each card, saved clips.
• Engagement intent — whether they want reminders, early access, or to invite friends.
• Community signals — votes on endings or character arcs.

How to feed signals into AI systems

1. Capture data client-side and forward server-side to your CDP (e.g., Segment) to avoid ad-block friction.
2. Normalize events (teaser_play, teaser_save, vote_end) and store them with low-latency ingestion.
3. Route to your recommender: build a simple features table (user_id, genre_pref, teaser_plays, vote_profile) that downstream models can use for real-time thumbnail selection.

Note: If you plan to integrate with third-party platforms (Holywater-style partners), insist on real-time API endpoints and PII-safe schemas to comply with 2026 privacy standards (consent-first, granular data sharing).

Section 5 — Personalization ideas you can implement this week

Start small: implement one or two hooks that yield the biggest lift.

• Dynamic thumbnail variants: Use two thumbnail treatments (mystery vs. character close-up) and show the variant based on declared preference. Measure lift in tap-through rate (TTR).
• Preference-based teaser order: If a user prefers "action," push high-energy teasers to the front of the episode strip.
• Personalized email snippets: Send a welcome email with a 10s AI-generated highlight clip tailored to their selected preference.
• Gamified voting: Let early signups vote on one decision in an episode; publicly show leaderboards to create FOMO and return visits.

Section 6 — Analytics, tracking, and measurement framework

To iterate quickly, track these KPIs from day one:

• Waitlist conversion rate (visitor → email/phone)
• Teaser engagement (plays, saves, shares per session)
• CTA CTR (hero CTA taps / impressions)
• Microform completion rate (after email capture)
• Referral rate (share-to-invite conversions)
• Early retention (percentage who open or watch Ep1 within 72 hours of release)

Instrumentation checklist:

• Use an event-based analytics tool (GA4, or PostHog for privacy-first stacks) with custom events for teaser interactions.
• Ingest events to a CDP for audience segmentation and downstream targeting.
• Implement server-side experiments to test personalization variants without client-side jitter.

Section 7 — Conversion playbook: real tactical moves to lift signups

These are small, testable moves that typically improve conversions fast.

1. Swap form friction — move from two fields (name + email) to one (email) and measure. Most mobile users abandon at multiple fields.
2. Offer an instant micro-reward — a 10s exclusive clip or GIF immediately after signup increases completion rates by 10%+
3. Show live social proof — a real-time counter ("2,743 users joined in the last 24h") creates urgency.
4. Use context-aware CTAs — change CTA copy based on scroll depth or teaser interactions ("Loved Ep 2? Reserve Ep 3 now").
5. Implement friend invites — give early-access credits for referrals and track invite conversion.

Section 8 — Examples & microcase: a quick A/B test you can run

Test hypothesis: personalizing thumbnails by declared preference increases teaser tap-through rate (TTR).

1. Variant A (Control): Show standard hero thumbnail and generic teaser order.
2. Variant B (Personalized): After email capture, ask "Which angle do you like?" and reorder teasers; change hero thumbnail to match preference.
3. Measure TTR and waitlist completion over a 7–14 day window. Expect a TTR lift of 8–20% based on similar vertical video experiments in late 2025.

Pro tip: Don’t run server-side personalization until a segment reaches statistical sample size. Start with client-side preferences and migrate to model-driven personalization once you have 10k+ signals.

Section 9 — Integrations: the practical wiring diagram

Plan for these integrations at launch to avoid last-minute work:

• Email provider: Klaviyo / Mailchimp / Iterable — for onboarding flows and behavioral emails.
• CDP / Data ingestion: Segment / Rudderstack — to unify signals and forward to the recommender.
• Analytics: GA4 or PostHog — event tracking for mobile interactions.
• Video CDN: Cloudflare Stream / Mux — for low-latency vertical clips and thumbnail generation.
• Recommender / ML: In-house model or partner API (Holywater-style) — requires normalized feature tables.
• SMS & Push: Twilio / OneSignal — for premiere reminders and urgent nudges.

Security & privacy: implement consent-first opt-ins, keep PII server-side encrypted, and offer granular sharing control for recommendations (2026 compliance baseline).

Section 10 — Template: mobile-first layout wireframe and copy (plug-and-play)

Use this as a starting wireframe. Copy is intentionally concise to fit mobile screens.

Wireframe (single-column order)

1. Hero (15s muted loop) — Headline — Subhead — CTA button
2. Episode teaser strip — 4 cards, swipeable
3. Waitlist module — Email/phone input → one preference question
4. Social proof — live counter + influencer quote
5. Personalization triggers — Save, Vote, Send Clip
6. Footer — privacy, contact, socials

Example hero copy

Headline: "6 Vertical Episodes. 90 Seconds Each."
Subhead: "Follow Mara’s last chances — premiere Apr 12."
CTA: "Reserve My Seat"

Section 11 — Sample microflows and backend event names

Keep event names consistent to speed up analytics and ML training.

• page_view: {page_type: "coming_soon", show_id}
• hero_teaser_play: {user_id, position, duration}
• teaser_card_tap: {card_id, episode_num}
• form_submit: {email/phone, promo_opt_in}
• preference_select: {genre_pref}
• invite_sent: {invite_code, recipient_contact}

Section 12 — Future Predictions & advanced strategies for 2026+

Where this goes next and what you should prepare for:

• Real-time personalization at scale — by 2027 expect platforms to pick episode thumbnails and teaser sequences based on sub-1-second predictions.
• AI-generated teasers — expect on-the-fly 10–20s highlight reels personalized per user, created by generative models.
• Interoperable content signals — standardized event schemas will let shows syndicate personalization signals to partner platforms.
• Narrative co-creation — audience votes and microtransactions will shape story branches, and your landing page should be the early catalyst for those signals.

"Your coming-soon page isn't a placeholder — it's the first act of a serialized show. Collect signals, not just emails." — Growth lead, episodic streaming (2026)

Checklist: launch-ready tasks (30/60/90 days)

30-day checklist

• Build hero with 15s teaser and mobile optimizations.
• Implement single-field waitlist capture.
• Create 3 teaser cards and wire swipe interactions.
• Integrate with an email provider and analytics.

60-day checklist

• Add one personalization hook (preference select) and feed to CDP.
• Set up basic A/B tests (CTA copy, thumbnail variant).
• Implement referral invites and a live counter.

90-day checklist

• Enable server-side experiments and thumbnail personalization.
• Prepare AI-generated highlight pipeline for post-signup emails.
• Run a pre-launch cohort campaign (influencers + targeted ads) and analyze cohort retention.

Final tactical tips — quick wins you can implement in a day

• Add a one-click phone input with SMS verification to capture users who never check email on mobile.
• Offer a "Notify me 30 mins before premiere" push to drive day-one retention.
• Combine a static fallback image with a 15s lightweight loop to improve LCP on slow networks.

Call-to-action

You don’t need a full platform to start building data-first, mobile-first launch pages. Use the wireframe and copy above to create a high-converting coming-soon page optimized for vertical episodic shows. Ready for the next step? Download the editable mobile-first template pack and A/B test plan (includes copy blocks, analytics events, and personalization hooks) — start capturing better signals and building a smarter waitlist today.

Next action: Grab the template, ship a first iteration within 7 days, and run the thumbnail personalization A/B test on day 14.

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