Viggle and inMarket Partner to Deliver Location-Targeted Mobile Advertising Capabilities

Advertisers Win As Viggle Leverages inMarket’s Beacon Technology and Native Proximity Marketing Expertise

Source:  Viggle, Inc.

Millions of music, TV and movie fans who love rewards and special offers now have another reason to love Viggle. Viggle (VGGL) has partnered with inMarket -- the world’s largest beacon platform -- to provide utility, targeted offers and branded engagement to Viggle users based on context and their proximity to retail environments. Beginning in March, inMarket’s groundbreaking beacon and native proximity platform will expand Viggle's engagement capabilities out of home with contextual special offers and branded messages based on where they are and what they’re doing. 

The offers are customized to appeal to Viggle users’ specific tastes based on their past preferences and media consumption patterns. Contextual engagements triggered by beacons receive interaction rates of five to seven times higher than traditional push messages due to their relevancy and timing. inMarket and Viggle are bringing an entirely new advertising capability to market for brand marketers as they combine the power and emotion of TV advertising with the hyper-local, hyper-relevant targeting of mobile devices at retail. 

Dave Heinzinger, Senior Director of Communications at inMarket, said, “When we deploy proximity engagements and beacons in an intelligent way, we see enormously positive results, such a 6x increase in app retention. Our partnership with Viggle is connecting the dots of engagement from the couch all the way to the point-of-purchase, in a way that measurably delivers ROI for our brand and retailer partners.” 

Greg Consiglio, president and COO of Viggle, said, “Viggle users have an incredibly high engagement rate with brand advertisements viewed on their mobile devices while watching TV in their living rooms. With inMarket, advertisers can now also reach Viggle users based on their established preferences and retail locations. This partnership bridges the gap between broadcast advertising and digital shopper marketing in stores. We are very excited about this agreement and its future potential for targeted mobile advertising based on location and entertainment preferences.” 

About inMarket

inMarket is the world's largest beacon and native proximity platform, reaching over 40 million verified shoppers per month via top beacon-enabled apps, and influencing over $300BN in annual sales. Over 100 brands have tapped inMarket's mobile shopper audience to create engagements at the most receptive time along the path to purchase, resulting in verified sales lift, increases in brand awareness and positive ROI. Mobile shoppers love these relevant engagements and retain context-aware apps on the inMarket platform up to 6x more than static apps.

inMarket was founded in 2010, and has offices in Venice Beach, CA and New York, NY. For more information, please visit www.inMarket.com. 

About Viggle Inc.

Viggle is an entertainment marketing and rewards platform whose app rewards its members for watching TV shows and discovering new music. The Viggle Platform had an average monthly total reach of 26 million for the three months ended December 2014, including over 7.9 million Viggle registered users. Since its launch, Viggle members have redeemed over $22 million in rewards for watching their favorite TV programs and listening to music. Members can use Viggle’s store, accessible through the Viggle app or on Viggle.com, to redeem their Viggle Points for TV show, movie, and music downloads. In addition, Viggle operates Wetpaint, which offers entertainment and celebrity news online; NextGuide, maker of technology that helps consumers search for, find, and set reminders for TV shows and movies; and Choose Digital, a digital marketplace platform that allows companies to incorporate digital content into existing rewards and loyalty programs in support of marketing and sales initiatives. For more information, visit www.viggle.com or follow us on Twitter @Viggle.

Viggle Reports 43% Year-Over-Year Revenue Growth and 116% Increase in Registered Users for Its Second Quarter Fiscal 2015

Net Registered Users Surpasses 7.9 Million; Average Monthly Total Reach Hits 26.0 Million

Source:  Viggle, Inc.

Viggle Inc. (VGGL), the entertainment marketing and rewards platform, posted strong double-digit growth in its key operating and financial metrics for its second quarter fiscal year 2015 ended December 31, 2014. Year-over-year revenue and sequential quarterly growth were significant, as were engagement and registered users. Revenue grew 43 percent to $7.185 million in F2Q 2015, compared with F2Q 2014, while sequential quarterly revenue grew 11 percent from $6.476 million in F1Q 2015. 

The average monthly total reach for the quarter ended December 31, 2014 was 26.04 million, compared with 17.34 million for the year-ago quarter, and 23.81 million for the quarter ended September 30, 2014. 

Almost one million new users registered on the Viggle platform during the quarter, bringing net registered users to more than 7.9 million, compared with 3.7 million net registered users as of the end of the year-ago quarter, an increase of 116 percent. 

Viggle’s quarter was highlighted by new key partnerships including HGTV, HitFix, Gracenote, and a new mobile technology in collaboration with Opera Mediaworks that allows TV network advertisers the ability to offer a brand-new call to action, Add-to-DVR, as part of their mobile campaigns. Rewards and content offerings were also expanded, giving Viggle users the ability to rent or own TV shows and movies from M-GO, the premium digital video on demand (VOD) service and joint venture between Technicolor and DreamWorks Animation. 

In October 2014, Viggle secured a $30 million investment through a securities purchase agreement with Sillerman Investment Company III, an entity owned by the Company’s Chairman and CEO, Robert F.X. Sillerman. Proceeds from the funding were used to repay $15 million of existing indebtedness and for working capital purposes including marketing, and to fuel innovation for its marketing and rewards platform. 

On January 23, 2015, Robert F.X. Sillerman, Chairman and CEO of both SFX and Viggle, announced that SFX entered into a sales agency agreement with Viggle that is expected to significantly bolster Viggle’s brand partnership, media and sponsorship capabilities. According to the three-year agreement between SFX and Viggle, the combined sales organization at SFX that will now represent Viggle to brand advertisers will sell all inventory for both companies. Combining efforts and inventory with SFX will give Viggle access to a significantly broader client base and sales opportunities. 

Greg Consiglio, President and COO of Viggle, said, “The results indicate that the Viggle platform is truly grabbing hold. Increases in all metrics point to increased customer acceptance and adoption brought on by a wide variety of factors. Execution of what we described in our IPO is a testimonial to both the vision of the company and the fabulous men and women who are making it a reality.”

As of the end of F2Q 2015, Viggle users have checked into 451,944,633 TV programs and matched more than 105 million songs using the Viggle Music service. As of December 31, 2014, users have redeemed more than 49 billion points for approximately 4.1 million rewards, an average of 12,035 points per reward redemption. The total retail value of rewards redeemed through December 31, 2014 is approximately $22 million. Overall, users’ average time in the Viggle app has been more than 63 minutes per session. 

For F2Q 2015, Viggle reported an Adjusted EBITDA loss of $7.0 million as compared to an Adjusted EBITDA loss of $5.2 million in F2Q 2014 and $7.8 million in F1Q 2015. Sequentially, non-marketing operating costs fell by $1.2 million and marketing spend increased by $1.1 million as compared with F1Q 2015 yielding lower Adjusted EBITDA losses. Adjusted EBITDA loss grew as compared to a year ago due to increased marketing spend of $3.3 million, partially offset by higher revenues. 

For more details on these results and a description of all definitions, please see Viggle’s quarterly form 10-Q filed this same date.

 

Viggle Inc. Filings

 

RewardsPay Partners with Viggle To Allow Viggle Points To Be Used at Major Online Retail Sites

For the First Time, Viggle Points Can Be Used Outside the Viggle App as a Currency for Retail

Source:  Viggle, Inc.

Viggle (VGGL), creator of the entertainment marketing platform that rewards users for watching TV and listening to music, has launched a partnership with RewardsPay^® (www.rewardspay.com), an innovative payment platform that enables frictionless redemption of loyalty and rewards points at online merchants, giving Viggle users the opportunity to use their Viggle points towards purchases of goods from popular online retailers. As a result of this partnership, Viggle Points can be used outside the Viggle app for the first time as a currency for retail purchases. 

The partnership with RewardsPay, gives Viggle users the opportunity to shop, at leading online retailers that sell a range of products including furniture, rugs, bedding, electronics, clothing jewelry, and more. 

RewardsPay is a streamlined consumer payment service that allows Viggle users to use Viggle points to securely purchase goods and services from some of the world’s leading online merchants. Viggle users can transform the points they’ve accumulated to buy nearly any type of goods or service from top online retail brands across a wide variety of shopping categories including clothing, electronics, books, music, home improvement and more. 

“We’re excited to work with Viggle and to be able to offer Viggle users the opportunity to shop for a broad array of items using their Viggle points,” said Anu Shukla, Founder & CEO of RewardsPay. “Viggle’s commitment to rewarding their users’ loyalty by providing such a diverse variety of redemption options is inspiring. We’re honored to deliver a simple yet innovative new way of enjoying Viggle.” 

Shopping with RewardsPay is simple. Viggle users shop online, selecting items and checking out as they normally would by clicking on the RewardsPay payment button on the checkout page of a participating merchant’s website. Viggle users decide how much of their payment they want to make using Viggle points, and RewardsPay facilitates a real-time transaction that draws the points from the user’s account.

“Viggle users will soon be able to use Viggle Points at participating retailers’ websites,” said Greg Consiglio, president and COO of Viggle. “Now the time they spent watching TV can become even more rewarding because the RewardsPay platform gives Viggle users the flexibility to use their points to purchase everything from electronics to home furnishings. It’s yet another way Viggle is adding value to our program and listening to what our users actually want.” 

Viggle users will continue to be able to browse the extensive collection of redeemable movie, television and music options that are available to members of the Viggle entertainment marketing platform that rewards users for watching TV and movies, listening to music, and watching videos. Since its launch, Viggle members have redeemed over $20 million from a vast selection of rewards for watching their favorite TV programs and listening to music. 

About RewardsPay

RewardsPay is a consumer payment service that enables consumers to use credit card reward points, cash rewards, hotel points, and airline miles to pay for items at leading merchant websites and applications. Consumers can use RewardsPay to purchase fashion apparel, gifts, shoes, furniture, housewares, jewelry, organic produce, and more from leading online merchants (www.rewardspay.com/merchants). RewardsPay enables reward programs including VOILÀ Hotel Rewards, Discover’s Cashback Bonus®, Choice Hotels Choice Privileges® and others to improve customer loyalty and redemption, while merchants benefit from a boost in sales conversions and increased basket sizes. Founded in 2011 and headquartered in Mountain View, California, RewardsPay has a seasoned management team with decades of combined experience in alternative payments, loyalty and rewards, payments, and games. For more information, visit www.rewardspay.com. 

About Viggle Inc. 

Viggle is an entertainment marketing and rewards platform whose app rewards its members for watching TV shows and discovering new music. Viggle Platform had total reach of 28.5 million in November 2014, including over 7.7 million Viggle registered users. Since its launch, Viggle members have redeemed over $20 million in rewards for watching their favorite TV programs and listening to music. Members can use Viggle’s store, accessible through the Viggle app or on Viggle.com, to redeem their Viggle Points for TV show, movie, and music downloads. In addition, Viggle operates Wetpaint, which offers entertainment and celebrity news online; NextGuide, maker of technology that helps consumers search for, find, and set reminders for TV shows and movies; and Choose Digital, a digital marketplace platform that allows companies to incorporate digital content into existing rewards and loyalty programs in support of marketing and sales initiatives. For more information, visit www.viggle.com or follow us on Twitter @Viggle. 

This press release may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and as defined in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected or anticipated. All information provided in this press release is as of the date of this release. Except as required by law, Viggle Inc. undertakes no obligation to update or revise publicly any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, after the date on which the statements are made or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.