IZEA Managed Services Bookings Reach 130% Growth in Q1 to Hit All-Time Record

Orlando, Florida, April 05, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- IZEA Worldwide, Inc. (NASDAQ: ), the premier provider of influencer marketing technology, data, and services for the world’s leading brands, announced today that it has set a Managed Services bookings record for the best Q1 in company history. The announcement comes just one quarter after IZEA set a record for its best Q4 Managed Services bookings. IZEA continued the strong momentum that began in Q4, both adding a variety of new customers as well as benefiting from meaningful increases from existing customers. IZEA’s bookings climbed 130% year over year in Q1 despite the impact the pandemic has had on a portion of IZEA’s historical customer base.

“This is the strongest Q1 Team IZEA has ever delivered, on multiple fronts,” said Ted Murphy, IZEA’s Chairman and CEO. “Not only have Managed Services bookings more than doubled, but we have also seen record signups for our SaaS offerings. Our total active SaaS customer base reached record numbers at the end of Q1 2021 - largely driven by IZEAx Discovery, our powerful and affordable influencer discovery tool.”

Bookings are a measure of all sales orders minus any known 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.

“We believe our investments in marketing and engineering are having a material impact on our trajectory as a company. In addition to the contracts we signed in Q1, we begin Q2 with a strong pipeline of additional opportunities with leading brands,” continued Murphy. “This quarter will also usher in a variety of meaningful platform upgrades to Shake, BrandGraph, and IZEAx, which we believe will attract additional customers for our SaaS offerings moving forward.”

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 /.

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.