IZEA IZEA Worldwide Inc

IZEA Worldwide, Inc. (NASDAQ: IZEA), the premier provider of influencer marketing technology, data, and services for the world’s leading brands, announced today that it received renewed commitments from two global retailers on Monday. One retailer is a Fortune 500 company, the other a Fortune 10 company. Both commitments mark the first time IZEA has seen spending from these customers since COVID-19 began to disrupt the economy and global supply chain.

“IZEA has enjoyed long-term relationships with these retail customers, providing both custom content for their e-commerce sites and influencer marketing services,” said Ted Murphy, IZEA’s Chairman and CEO. “We saw new contractual commitments from both parties in every quarter last year, but IZEA did not receive contracts for new initiatives in Q1 2020 from either customer. We are excited to see both organizations reactivate their marketing efforts and sign new contracts with IZEA to begin spending again.”

IZEA previously announced that it had been awarded two contracts from different customers, totaling $1 million, which were both signed on Monday, May 18th. The company subsequently indicated that it believes that bookings for its managed services business in Q2 2020 will grow year over year despite the challenges created by COVID-19.

“As the global economy begins to open up, we are seeing new commitments from customers come in meaningful waves,” continued Murphy. “Different sectors have been impacted by, and reacted to, COVID-19 in a variety of ways, with some pausing spending and some getting more aggressive in their advertising efforts. We take it as a positive sign that both of these retailers entered into new campaign agreements on the same day, and we believe that there is likely some correlation with how their businesses have been impacted by the pandemic, as well as their macroeconomic outlook. Given the size of these retail organizations, we view a return to spending as a leading positive indicator for the trickle-down effects on those companies who manufacture and sell products through these organizations.”

About IZEA Worldwide, Inc.IZEA Worldwide, Inc. (“IZEA”) operates IZEAx, the premier online marketplace that connects marketers with content creators. IZEAx automates influencer marketing and custom content development, allowing brands and agencies to scale their marketing programs. IZEA creators include celebrities and accredited journalists. Creators are compensated for producing unique content such as long and short form text, videos, photos, status updates, and illustrations for marketers or distributing such content on behalf of marketers through their personal websites, blogs, and social media channels. Marketers receive influential content and engaging, shareable stories that drive awareness. For more information about IZEA, visit https://izea.com/.

Safe Harbor StatementAll statements in this release that are not based on historical fact are “forward-looking statements” intended to qualify for the safe harbor from liability established by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements, which are based on certain assumptions and describe our future plans, strategies and expectations, can generally be identified by the use of forward-looking terms such as “may,” “will,” “would,” “could,” “should,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “estimate,” “believe,” “intend,” "likely," "projects," “plans,” "pursue," "strategy" or "future," or the negative of these words or other words or expressions of similar meaning.  Examples of forward-looking statements include, among others, statements we make regarding expectations concerning IZEA’s ability to increase revenue and bookings, growth or maintenance of customer relationships, and expectations concerning IZEA’s business strategy. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements, as a result of various factors including, among others, the following: competitive conditions in the content and social sponsorship segment in which IZEA operates; failure to popularize one or more of the marketplace platforms of IZEA; uncertainty relating to the effects of COVID-19, our ability to establish effective disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting; our ability to satisfy the requirements for continued listing of our common stock on the Nasdaq Capital Market; changing economic conditions that are less favorable than expected; and other risks and uncertainties described in IZEA’s periodic reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The forward-looking statements made in this release speak only as of the date of this release, and IZEA assumes no obligation to update any such forward-looking statements to reflect actual results or changes in expectations, except as otherwise required by law.

Martin Smith
IZEA Worldwide, Inc.
Phone: 407-674-6911
Email: ir@izea.com