IZEA Partners with UTV to Introduce SponsoredTweets.com Instream Twitter Advertising Platform to India

ORLANDO, Fla., Sept. 12, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- IZEA Holdings, Inc. (IZEA:OTCBB), a world leader in social media sponsorships, today announced an exclusive partnership with UTV (BSE: 532619.BO, NSE: UTVSOF.NS) to bring IZEA's SponsoredTweets.com platform to India. UTV will leverage the platform to connect advertisers with IZEA's international celebrities such as Kim Kardashian, Diddy, and Nick Cannon as well as create new monetization opportunities for the estimated 12 million Twitter users in India. UTV's exclusive roster of Indian celebrities including Lara Dutta, Mahesh Bhupati, Anurag Kashyap, Rohan Bopanna, Neetu Chandra amongst others will join the site and soon be available for potential Twitter sponsorship opportunities.  

UTV is India's first integrated global media and entertainment company, operating India's largest movie studio, multiple television channels and a variety of digital content services.

"In just six months, UTV's ability to monetize digital rights for celebrities has become unparalleled across platforms, be it via voice, video, web and now social media," said Sameer Pitalwalla, Sr. Vice President, Interactive – UTV. "IZEA's SponsoredTweets.com is the ideal platform for advertisers, celebrities and users to connect and capitalize on their Twitter presence."

Social media continues to see global growth with 1.5 billion visits to social networks per day. From 2010 to 2011 there was an 18% increase in Fortune Global 100 companies using Twitter. The largest growth was in Asia-Pacific corporate Twitter accounts, a 68% year-over-year increase.

"Social media is a global phenomenon. Our goal is to provide sponsorship opportunities to advertisers and social media publishers around the world," said Ted Murphy, IZEA Chief Executive Officer. "I am incredibly excited about our partnership with UTV because IZEA's technology coupled with UTV's expansive reach and celebrity roster offers advertisers an incredible untapped channel and opens up a new market for our company."

About IZEA

IZEA Holdings, Inc., ("IZEA") is a world leader in social media sponsorship, operating multiple marketplaces including WeReward, SponsoredTweets, and SocialSpark. IZEA connects advertisers with social media publishers, helping them monetize their social media presence.  The company has completed over 2,000,000 social media sponsorships for customers ranging from small local businesses to Fortune 50 organizations. For more information about IZEA, visit www.izea.com.

About UTV

UTV is a global Media and Entertainment company headquartered in Mumbai, India. Since it began as a television content company in 1990, UTV has developed into a global integrated entertainment content production and distribution company with five business verticals: Television (content production and airtime sales), Movies, Broadcasting, Games and Interactive. UTV is a publicly traded company listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange (BSE: 532619.BO, NSE: UTVSOF.NS). For more information about UTV, visit www.utvgroup.com.

Safe Harbor Statement

This press release contains forward-looking statements. Please read the full statement and disclosures here: http://izea.com/safe-harbor-statement

SOURCE IZEA Holdings, Inc.