First Aggregated Marketplace to Provide Functionality Across the Visual Social Channels Including Instagram, Tumblr and YouTube
IZEA, Inc. (OTCQB: IZEA), the leader in Sponsored Social, today unveiled the first real-time marketplace designed to connect brands with creators for all forms of sponsored content across major social platforms, including Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, YouTube and LinkedIn.
Building on the three-million sponsorship transactions the company has completed since 2006, IZEA’s new Sponsorship Marketplace offers a single destination where creators ranging from celebrities to everyday social influencers can converge and connect with leading brands and their agencies. The marketplace also saves time and money by providing a layer of automation that shortens the process of sourcing and executing sponsored social from days into minutes.
Sponsored Social is different from display and other forms of native ads because brands invest in bloggers, tweeters and other social media creators to create and distribute advertiser content through their own social networks in their own voice.
“Sponsored Social has grown tremendously since we created the space in 2006. Sponsored blog posts, tweets and videos are now common offerings from The New York Times and the Associated Press to Kim Kardashian and TMZ,” said IZEA CEO and founder Ted Murphy. “While adoption has skyrocketed, brands still find it difficulty to truly scale their sponsorship efforts. We aim to change that by creating an entire ecosystem around this space, beginning with the Sponsorship Marketplace public beta at IZEA.com.”
The Sponsorship Marketplace™ from IZEA provides patent pending, first-of-its-kind functionality including:
Creator Discovery Engine: Powerful, cross-channel search functionality that allows advertisers to identify and filter creators based on topic, channel, audience and reach.
Automated Campaign Workflow: Advertisers can create an opportunity, vet creators, review and approve content created and execute a campaign.
Two-Way Bidding & Negotiation: For the first time ever, Creators can proactively pitch Advertisers on sponsorship opportunities, helping Advertiser identify the best candidates for their campaign.
Streamlined Payment: The Sponsorship Marketplace eliminates the need to manage the sponsorship process via emails and spreadsheets by incorporating a payment processing system. It controls and tracks sponsored content investments and serves to reduce the time from bidding to completion.
Automated Disclosure: The IZEA marketplace features automated FTC disclosures to clearly denote sponsored content. This includes graphic overlays on sponsored photos and pre-roll on sponsored video.
Real-Time Performance Tracking: Unified campaign performance metrics from a macro and micro-perspective across the full range of channels involved. Advertisers can view and download the results of an individual creator or the campaign as a whole in real-time.
IZEA’s Exchange platform powers The Sponsorship Marketplace, enabling corporate publishers, media companies, talent agencies, and advertising firms to create and manage Sponsored Social campaigns through a customized white-label ecosystem. The Company plans to announce key partners utilizing IZEA Exchange throughout 2014.
To participate in the public beta of The Sponsorship Marketplace, visit: www.izea.com. To receive more information regarding the IZEA Exchange partnership ecosystem, visit corp.izea.com.
About IZEA
Founded in 2006, IZEA is the pioneer of Social Sponsorship. The company builds cloud-based marketplaces that connect brands with creators who blog, tweet, pin, and post on their behalf. Brands receive influential consumer content and engaging, shareable stories that drive awareness. Creators are compensated for their participation and partnership. For more information about IZEA, visit http://corp.izea.com.
Safe Harbor Statement
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. These forward-looking statements are based largely on IZEA’s expectations and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, certain of which are beyond IZEA’s control. Actual results could differ materially from these forward-looking statements as a result of, among other factors, competitive conditions in the Sponsored Social segment in which IZEA operates, failure to popularize one or more of the marketplace platforms of IZEA, inability to obtain additional capital, and changing economic conditions that are less favorable than expected. In light of these risks and uncertainties, there can be no assurance that the forward-looking information contained in this release will in fact occur. Please read the full statement and disclosures here: http://corp.izea.com/safe-harbor-statement
