Waterloo, Ontario, August 28, 2014: SponsorsOne Inc. (CSE: SPO), (“SponsorsOne” or the “Company”), the social commerce platform that brings elite sponsorship to the masses as a new form of digital marketing and commerce within the social economy, is pleased to provide a corporate update.
“Digital marketing advertising spending will hit $121 billion in 2014, representing 25% of the total global advertising spend,” states Myles Bartholomew, CEO of SponsorsOne Inc. “For 2015, the growth rate in the digital advertising sector will continue to exceed all other forms of advertising with display ads exceeding search advertising for the first time, this is the approach used for social networking and mobile advertising. Total digital advertising is forecasted to hit $140B in 2015, states Zenith Optimedia in a report published April 7, 2014. As growth trends indicate, marketing within the social networks represents the highest growth segment, and is now forecasted to exceed Search Advertising associated with Google’s revenue model. SponsorsOne is positioned to capitalize on the growth by providing the ability to monetize the content created within the social networks using Social Sponsorship.”
The Company has made significant progress in the development of its advanced cloud- based platform that brings elite sponsorship to the masses and will be a marketplace for brands and influencers to conduct social commerce. Social Sponsorship will engage million of users with the brands and generate social income for trading products, services and cash for engaging with brands within the social network. The three main components of SponsorsOne’s platform are social sponsorship, social currency and social commerce – the marketplace to conduct trading:
I. Social Sponsorship: For the first time brands can deliver sponsorship to the masses rather than only to the elite. Sponsorship within social networks is the highest form of engagement capable and acts as a form of employment to get social media users getting real value out of their engagement with Brands. Sponsorship programs are launched by the brands within the SponsorsCloudTM and the user engages by accepting sponsorship from the brands they love. Discount levels are established by each brand and the influencer within the social network will get paid with social currency for engaging with the brands campaigns. Users can receive higher sponsorship support by continually engaging and working with the brand to achieve bigger discounts and higher earning potential.
Status: The core-underlying platform – SponsorsCloud™ – is installed for development, testing, staging and production with test results supporting over 6 million sign ups per minute. The user-facing web and mobile interface is designed and currently being implemented with all server side functionality complete. The brand sponsorship management platform is in alpha test and UX/UI design is underway. The ability to load and launch campaigns within the sponsorship server is tested and live, this will be managed in the early roll out with the support team at SponsorsOne. The first campaigns are scheduled to commerce in the first half of 2015.
II. Social Currency: The social currency is the rewards system used to compensate the influencer in exchange for marketing and promoting the brands in the form of social engagement within their social networks. The more an Influencer engages the more social currency they will earn. The more currency they earn with one or more brand the higher their sponsorship level and the deeper their discounts. This currency and discount can be used to purchase products from any brand participating within the SponsorsOne Social Economy and this currency can be continually traded between the influencer and brand for products, services and cash. The Influencers value to each brand is evaluated and their individual value drives their social capital and the value of their currency for trading within the Social Economy. This is the engine for trading within the social economy, driving social commerce in a scalable way. SponsorsOne is positioned to be the leader is this burgeoning field of commerce.
Status: The social currency engine runs within the SponsorsCloud™ platform and is fully integrated within the social sponsorship framework. The development of the social currency engine has been in direct conjunction with the SponsorsCloudTM platform and social sponsorship framework. It is a core component of the social sponsorship product design from both a backend infrastructure and a frontend UX/UI perspective. The SponsorsCloudTM and associated social sponsorship product components including the social currency engine are in the final stage of development before beta launch. Beta launch and subsequent early versions of the product will include a simplified feature set to introduce the social economy and then functionality will be expanded to achieve the full social economic vision of SponsorsOne.
III. Social Commerce – Marketplace: Social Commerce will take place in the social economy marketplace. This is where Influencers and Brands can leverage their social capital and use their social currency to capitalize on their social worth and extract true value from the social economy. Influencers and brands bring their social capital, which is a measure of their social influence and potential worth, and their social currency to the marketplace seeking social economic opportunities. They can partake in social economic transactions to earn them more social currency, improve their social capital, or use their social currency to extract value from the social economy in the form of products, services, cash, or any other potential value exchange.
Status: The Influencers and the brands within the social economy will drive the social commerce marketplace. As the Influencers and brands engaging in social sponsorship increases and the volume of social sponsorship driven engagements and the flow of social currency increases, the marketplace will naturally expand and scale to meet the needs of the social economy. The beauty of the social sponsorship model and platform is that a marketplace immediately exists upon beta product launch, there can be real value exchange between Influencers and brands immediately, regardless of whether there is a handful of participants or thousands, and the social sponsorship model, platform, and marketplace scales seamlessly as the social economy grows. The marketplace will be simple market for beta launch and then becoming more complex as social commerce supply and demand drive it.
Other Activity Updates
1. Product Development: The SponsorsCloud™ platform and associated applications & products continue to be developed towards commercial readiness and beta launch. The current focus is on refining the product design and user experience, and isolating the beta launch feature sets. SponsorsOne has utilized expert product design consultants to assist with this process. Preparations of the system framework and IT infrastructure continue to be underway in preparation of commercial beta launch.
The Company also continues to perform work on its suite of patents around its technology.
2. Beta Clients and Launch: The Company is continuing to develop market relationships in order to connect with brands, professional influencers, and existing social networks. The Company has established strong connections in the advertising market verticals of Fashion, Music, Action-sports & Lifestyle, Entertainment and Digital Marketing, and is continuing to expand its market reach. The Company’s immediate business development focus is on identifying and qualifying brands, influencers, and other partners as potential beta launch partners. Beta launch is scheduled to commence in the first half of 2015.
3. M&A and Partnership activity: The Company’s acquisition strategy is to build a global creative agency that will be the delivery channel for the social sponsorship products and services. An initial pipeline of potential acquisition targets has been established and exploration and discussions with select top prospects have begun. The business development team and advisory team are responsible for advancing the Company’s acquisition pipeline and leading exploration of acquisition prospects.
These teams are also working to build key strategic partnerships to establish channels to access brands, top professional influencers, creative talent, IP, and social networks that can bring a user base and brand base to the SponsorsCloudTM platform.
4. Q3 Administrative reporting: The Company announces that it has agreed to settle an aggregate of $94,711 of indebtedness owed to certain arm’s length creditors through the issuance of 105,234 common shares at a price of $0.90 per common share. All common shares issued in connection with the shares for debt transaction are subject to a four-month statutory hold period.
The Company also announces that it has released its third quarter report with financial statements and management discussion and analysis.
About SponsorsOne (CSE: SPO)
SponsorsOne is positioned to become the leader in the next evolution of digital marketing, enabling one-to-one, authentic engagement between brands, influencers and their online enthusiasts through social sponsorship and commerce. With the SponsorsCloudTM platform, brands and influencers can identify and sponsor their fans. SponsorsOne is the creator of a proprietary social sponsorship currency that gives consumers real compensation for their authentic social media engagement (blogs, videos, tweets, pins and posts). With SponsorsCloud™ and the social sponsorship currency, the Company is building the engine to change and drive the social economy.
To learn how to get your online enthusiasts working for you, visit https://sponsorsone.com
For more information, please contact: Investor Relations at SponsorsOne Email: info@sponsorsone.com
Twitter: @SponsorsOne
The Canadian Securities Exchange (“CSE”) has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this press release.
Forward-Looking Statements
This news release contains forward-looking statements and information that are based on the beliefs of management and reflect the Company’s current expectations. When used in this news release, the words “estimate”, “project”, “belief”, “anticipate”, “intend”, “expect”, “plan”, “predict”, “may” or “should” and the negative of these words or such variations thereon or comparable terminology, are intended to identify forward-looking statements and information. Such statements and information reflect the current view of the Company with respect to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated in those forward-looking statements and information.
By their nature, forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause actual results, performance or achievements, or other future events, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, among others, the following risks: risks associated with marketing and sale of securities; the need for additional financing requirements and access to capital, reliance on key personnel; the potential for conflicts of interest among certain officers or directors with certain other projects; the volatility of the volume and price of the Common Shares, the failure of the business strategy, the integrity of the Company’s patents and proprietary intellectual property and competition. The Company cautions that the foregoing list of risk factors is not exhaustive and is subject to change and there can be no assurance that such assumptions will reflect the actual outcome of such items or factors. When relying on the Company’s forward-looking statements and information to make decisions, investors and others should carefully consider the foregoing factors and other uncertainties and potential events, including the risk factors set out in the Company’s Listing Statement. The Company has assumed a certain progression, which may not be realized. It has also assumed that the material factors referred to above will not cause such forward-looking statements and information to differ materially from actual results or events.
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