ORLANDO, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
IZEA, Inc. (NASDAQ: IZEA), operator of IZEAx®, the premier online marketplace connecting brands and publishers with influential content creators, has announced Augmented Sponsorship™. The first of its kind service enables IZEA clients to programmatically distribute 3-D assets to social media influencers, which influencers can use to produce sponsored photo and video content for brands across leading social platforms.
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CORT is using IZEA’s technology to provide 3D models of furniture to social media influencers, allowing them to place the virtual furniture in their home and share the experience with their friends and followers. (Photo: Business Wire)
Augmented Sponsorship™ leverages the ARKit technology in Apple’s newly released iOS 11, which is optimized for iPhone 8 and iPhone X, and available for all iPhones 6s and greater . ARKit simplifies the placement of virtual 3D objects and animations in real-world environments.
A video demonstration of how the technology works can be seen here : http://izea.me/2xw7Dql
“We have made it easy for any brand or agency to distribute AR content to influencers using the workflow tools available in IZEAx,” said Ted Murphy, Founder and CEO of IZEA. “Our platform provides dynamic targeting and delivery of 3D assets to individual influencers, enabling those influencers to place and manipulate virtual objects, and include them in their content creation process. This opens up a whole new way for Influencers to engage with brands and produce compelling sponsored visual content for their audiences.”
IZEA has launched its first Augmented Sponsorship campaign with CORT, the nation’s leading provider of transition services, including furniture rental for home and office. CORT is using IZEA’s technology to provide 3D models of furniture to social media influencers, allowing them to place the virtual furniture in their home and share the experience with their friends and followers.
An example of the influencer content created for the CORT campaign can be seen here : https://www.instagram.com/p/BZRuLlpDU3Y/
“We are no longer limited in our ability to scale influencer marketing campaigns by the logistics of sourcing and shipping physical products to them,” said Mindy Oliver, Online Marketing Manager at CORT. “Augmented reality allows us to distribute virtual representations of our furniture to influencers, have them place it in their homes and share that experience with their audience. We can now include more people in an influencer marketing campaign and reduce the operational overhead associated with traditional product sampling.”
IZEA has a storied history of innovation in the influencer marketing space. The company created the first platform for sponsored blog posts, sponsored tweets, and sponsored check-ins. They were also first to market with sponsored photos, sponsored streams, and sponsored virtual reality videos. Since inception in 2006, the company has completed over 3.5 million transactions between brands and creators.
“Our IZEAx platform creates the framework for us to bring new content creation tools to influencers that are impossible without an end-to-end technology solution,” continued Murphy. “Augmented Sponsorship is particularly useful for products that are difficult or expensive to provide to influencers, such as furniture or jewelry, but also opens up a wide range of creative possibilities outside of product placement alone. We can have a superhero fly into a video with an influencer, or place a racetrack with luxury automobiles zooming around an influencer’s driveway,” said Murphy.
Augmented Sponsorship for Marketers is available to all licensees of IZEAx and IZEA managed services clients. Creators who wish to participate in Augmented Sponsorship opportunities are required to run the IZEA app in iOS11 on an ARKit compatible device.
About IZEA
IZEA operates IZEAx, the premier technology platform that connects marketers with influential content creators. IZEAx automates influencer marketing and custom content development, allowing brands and agencies to scale their marketing programs. IZEA creators range from leading bloggers and social media personalities, to A-list celebrities and professional journalists. Creators are compensated for developing and distributing text, videos, photos and status updates through social media. Marketers receive influential content and engaging, shareable stories that drive awareness. For more information about IZEA, visit www.izea.com.
About CORT
CORT, a Berkshire Hathaway Company, is the nation’s leading provider of transition services, including furniture rental for home and office, event furnishings, destination services, apartment locating, touring and other services. With more than 100 offices, showrooms and clearance centers across the United States, operations in the United Kingdom and partners in more than 80 countries, no other furniture rental company can match CORT’s breadth of services and companywide commitment to providing excellent customer service. For more information, please visit www.cort.com.
Safe Harbor Statement
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. These forward-looking statements are based largely on IZEA's expectations and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, certain of which are beyond IZEA's control. Actual results could differ materially from these forward-looking statements as a result of, among other factors, 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 and changing economic conditions that are less favorable than expected. In light of these risks and uncertainties, there can be no assurance that the forward-looking information contained in this respect will in fact occur.
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