IZEA Announces the New Creator Marketplace on IZEA.com

Orlando, Florida, Sept. 21, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- , Inc. (NASDAQ: ), the premier provider of influencer marketing technology, data, and services for the world’s leading brands, today announced it will launch a newly reimagined Creator Marketplace in October and subsequently retire its Shake platform. The new marketplace will live on IZEA.com and become a central hub for IZEA software and services.

The announcement was made today during the “SUPERCHANGED” streaming event. The video replay, along with a 4-minute recap, can be found at  after 3 p.m. EDT today.

“IZEA.com is an overhaul of our marketplace from the ground up,” said Ted Murphy, IZEA’s Founder, Chairman and CEO. “We have rewritten the code base, created new listings, introduced social media profiles powered by BrandGraph, and most importantly, transformed the experience from a one-way marketplace to a two-way marketplace. Not only can creators list their services for sale, marketers can post Casting Calls to find the right people for their company and campaigns.”

Enhanced Creator Profile Pages

Among the highlights of the new marketplace are reimagined creator profiles that surface more creator content and BrandGraph A.I. insights. Potential buyers can view a creator's social handles, explore the brands they post about, examine content themes, and get the predictive audience demographics of a given social connection.

The Launch of Casting Calls

Casting Calls are an all-new way for marketers and creators to find each other for collaborations. Marketers create Casting Calls to solicit and qualify inbound pitches for everything from influencer marketing sponsorships to full-time employment. For creators, Casting Calls is an opportunity to warm-pitch brands actively seeking their content, creativity, and influence. Responses can include both video and text pitches, as well as answers to marketer-created surveys.

Compensation can consist of cash, services, trips and more. With the introduction of Casting Calls, IZEA has removed the requirement for buyer and seller transactions to happen exclusively on-platform. Marketers can transact with creators who respond to Casting Calls through the site or transact outside of the marketplace with no additional fees.

Pricing

Access to the IZEA Marketplace is free, allowing anyone to buy or sell listings. Creators can pitch up to three casting calls per month under the free plan. Upgrading to a Pro plan provides additional marketplace benefits.

• Creator Pro: The Creator Pro plan allows creators to respond to unlimited casting calls, reduces the fees for all marketplace transactions, and guarantees traffic to individual listing pages. It is $6 per month when purchased annually.
• Marketer Pro: The Marketer Pro plan allows marketers to create unlimited casting calls with guaranteed traffic and is $99 per month when purchased annually.

Shake Migration and Sunsetting

IZEA will sunset Shake in the coming weeks. Existing Shakes will migrate to IZEA.com for the platform launch in October. All new listings and creator signups will begin there at that time. The final day to create Shake listings and orders will be Sept. 22, after which there will be a two-week window to complete pending transactions.

To work with IZEA as either an influencer or a marketer, visit . For news and resources, follow IZEA on Twitter at .

About IZEA Worldwide, Inc.

IZEA Worldwide, Inc. (“IZEA”), is a marketing technology company providing software and professional services that enable brands to collaborate and transact with the full spectrum of today’s top social influencers and content creators. The company serves as a champion for the growing Creator Economy, enabling individuals to monetize their content, creativity, and influence. IZEA launched the industry’s first-ever influencer marketing platform in 2006 and has since facilitated nearly 4 million transactions between online buyers and sellers. Leading brands and agencies partner with IZEA to increase digital engagement, diversify brand voice, scale content production, and drive a measurable return on investment.

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.

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