Orlando, Florida, Feb. 01, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- IZEA Worldwide, Inc. (NASDAQ: IZEA), the premier provider of influencer marketing technology, data, and services for the world’s leading brands, announced today that bookings for Managed Services in January 2021 set a record for the best January in the history of the company. The results were bolstered by strong repeat business and expanding contract sizes as well as the addition of new customers in the month.
“Our Managed Services team has continued the momentum we saw towards the end of 2020, despite the ongoing challenges associated with COVID-19,” said Ted Murphy, IZEA’s Chairman and CEO. “Not only is this the best January for Managed Services bookings on record, but we have also exceeded the combined bookings for January and February of 2020 in the first month of this year. We are very close to exceeding all of Q1 2020 Managed Services bookings at this point, and continue to develop a robust pipeline for potential opportunities throughout the quarter. IZEA is very well positioned to show growth in managed services bookings as compared to Q1 of last year while the pandemic continues to impact many of our previous customers.”
Bookings are a measure of all sales orders minus any known or expected cancellations or refunds with respect to such sales orders or refunds. Management uses bookings to inform expectations of total sales activity. Bookings are not always an indicator of revenue for the quarter and could be subject to future adjustment. Revenue from Managed Services bookings are typically recognized over a 6-month period on average.
The company significantly increased marketing activities in Q4 2020 and Q1 2021, with the majority of spend allocated towards promoting IZEA’s SaaS offerings. IZEA’s total active SaaS customer base increased to break new record numbers in January 2021, largely driven by signups for IZEAx Discovery, the company’s self-service influencer discovery tool. The active customer count for IZEAx Discovery in January 2021 has more than doubled as compared to January 2020. The company is also seeing continued positive sales momentum with IZEAx Unity Suite new customer wins, particularly among the more affordable pricing tiers introduced last year.
“We believe the addressable customer base for our software solutions is vast and relatively untapped,” said Ted Murphy, IZEA’s Chairman and CEO. “Businesses of all sizes are using influencer marketing to drive their business forward, and our goal is to provide a suite of software tools that are accessible and affordable for the masses. Last year we rolled out pricing changes which have been met with a surge of new customers, extending our reach far beyond the top tier brands and agencies that have historically represented our customer base. We are converting customers at direct-to-consumer brands and smaller agencies, and we are doing so in a way that is largely driven by marketing automation rather than human outreach. As we continue to transition to our new pricing tiers, we are aware there may be near term negative impact on revenue, but long term we believe will see a dramatic increase in the size of our customer ecosystem, with more dollars coming from more customers.”
“IZEA is in a growth mindset,” said Ted Murphy, IZEA’s Chairman and CEO. “Our capital on hand enables us to move into a mode of capturing market share and scaling our company. We are more aggressively marketing. We are hiring new team members. We are focused on building a diverse customer base for offerings, and servicing the full spectrum of marketers and creators.”
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 Statement
All 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,” “hope,” “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; 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.