ORLANDO, Fla., Dec. 07, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- IZEA Worldwide, Inc. (NASDAQ: IZEA), the premier provider of influencer marketing technology, data, and services for the world’s leading brands and agencies, today announced it acquired Zuberance, a pioneering advocate marketing software platform. Zuberance provides marketers with the tools to build white-label communities of their customers and influencers while engaging these communities to serve as advocates for their brand, leading to low-cost content creation. Zuberance joins IZEA’s family of software platforms, which recently crossed 1 million registered users.
Advocate Marketing leverages the authentic voices of a brand's most satisfied customers, transforming their organic enthusiasm into an influential social campaign. This approach, rooted in genuine customer experiences and satisfaction, perfectly complements influencer marketing by adding depth and authenticity. IZEA’s acquisition of Zuberance signals a strategic move toward harnessing the combined power of influencer presence and authentic customer advocacy within the integrated marketing ecosystem.
Core Features of the Zuberance Platform:
- Customer Referrals: Generate sales and leads through both customers and influencers through a performance-based affiliate model. Participants are rewarded based on the sales they generate.
- Customer Reviews: Boost product ratings on third-party sites with fully disclosed reviews.
- Customer Stories: Get valuable testimonials, case studies, videos, and more.
- Customer Answers: Get advocates to answer prospects’ questions, driving leads and sales.
- Social Sharing: Turn your customers into influencers who actively promote your brand.
- Analytics: Track and optimize campaign results in real time.
“Advocate Marketing takes customer satisfaction and turns it into authentic, affordable UGC that generates sales,” said IZEA Founder and CEO Ted Murphy. “Brands can now combine the power of both influencers and customers to leverage the full potential of the Creator Economy through one company. We are excited to welcome the Zuberance team to IZEA and are pleased to incorporate their platform into IZEA’s dynamic suite of software products.”
Zuberance measures and rewards the direct sales impact of customers and influencers. The platform is directly integrated with Shopify, WooCommerce, and BigCommerce for retailers and has a dedicated Salesforce application for B2B advocacy programs. B2B customers can now create influential communities of advocates with a streamlined program that is fully measurable.
“We are thrilled to join forces with IZEA, the company that created the influencer marketing space,” said Rob Fuggetta, CEO and founder of Zuberance. “This strategic move allows us to leverage IZEA’s robust technology, services, and infrastructure to further empower brand marketers and advocates. Together, we are poised to redefine the landscape of the Creator Economy and deliver unparalleled value to brands worldwide.”
This announcement comes the same week IZEA announced its acquisition of Hoozu, an established influencer marketing company based in Australia.
“With the acquisition of Hoozu this week, we expanded our geographic footprint in APAC,” said IZEA President and Chief Operating Officer Ryan Schram. “With the acquisition of Zuberance, we’ve enhanced IZEA’s ecosystem by adding capabilities that not only benefit our direct customers but also the customers of our growing family of influencer marketing companies around the world.”
If you are a creator economy company looking to inquire about a partnership or potential acquisition, visit izea.com/partners/acquisitions.
Learn More and Get Involved
- To work with IZEA as an influencer or a marketer, visit izea.com.
- To learn more about Zuberance, visit zuberance.com.
- For news and resources, follow IZEA at x.com/izea.
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.
About Zuberance
With its all-in-one advocate marketing platform, Zuberance enables businesses to boost brand affinity, generate influential social content, drive reviews, and gather customer feedback. The platform offers a rewards system to incentivize advocate actions, and it integrates seamlessly with leading e-commerce platforms. Zuberance’s advocate marketing software is custom-branded and structured around your business needs, aligning seamlessly with your unique business model, customer journey, and technological infrastructure. Zuberance also offers full-service solutions, designing, developing, and managing advocate marketing programs and campaigns from end to end.
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,” “optimistic,” "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 integrate the acquired business of Zuberance within expected timeframes and to achieve the revenue, cost savings and earnings levels from such acquisition at or above the levels projected; 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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