Company Continues Sales Momentum and Expansion Within Key Accounts
Orlando, Florida (March 16, 2022) – 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 has been awarded a variety of contracts from both new and existing clients, propelling IZEA’s Managed Services team to its best Q1 bookings in company history. Managed Services bookings for the quarter have surpassed $10 million compared with $6.4 million in 2021, an increase of over 50% year over year, with half the month of March remaining.
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 nine-month period on average.
“We broke new managed services bookings records every quarter last year, and I am pleased to see the momentum continue in early 2022,” said Ted Murphy, IZEA Founder and CEO. “IZEA has been awarded significant contract expansions in Q1. We have also seen strong sales pipeline development and have made many new strategic hires in our sales organization that are not yet fully contributing to bookings. We are seeing success in growing key accounts while venturing into new industries and geographic markets. In a “US Video Influencer Marketing 2022” report released on March 8, eMarketer predicts that influencer marketing spending in the U.S. will grow by 12% this year — our Managed Services business is currently on pace to well exceed that trajectory and we intend to continue expanding our market share in the U.S. and abroad.”
“Despite global financial and geopolitical challenges, brands are still making major investments into influencer marketing as they know the value of working with creators,” Murphy continued. “The month of March has been very strong for us, and we have not directly felt the effects of restrictions or supply-chain shortages with regard to Russia. We had an infinitesimal amount of revenue associated with Russian-based marketers or creators in 2021.”
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.
