Little Rock’s Sumotext Plans to Build on Big Year

(From left) Elsbeth Cloninger, Tim Miller and John Styers of Sumotext.

Tim Miller, president and CEO of Little Rock mobile messaging provider Sumotext, will be a keynote speaker at Tuesday’s Nonprofit Mobile Day in New York City.

Miller’s appearance at this prestigious nonprofit fundraising and marketing event will cap what so far has been a busy 2013 for his Innovate Arkansas client firm.

In addition to the exposure the firm will receive this week in New York, Sumotext recently has:

• Extended its relationship with EA Sports through 2014.
• Partnered with Donor Services Group, an international fundraising services firm, to provide mobile giving to all its clients.
• Worked with Crown Imports to provide mobile messaging for its Corona summer photo sharing campaign.
• Hired two new executives, three in the last year.
• Provided SMS and MMS delivery services for Passbook Passes on iOS, Android, Blackberry and Windows Mobile devices.
• And, perhaps most importantly, was again ranked the No. 1 mobile message provider for 2013 by TopTenReviews.com.

In addition to EA Sports and Corona, Sumotext’s client portfolio includes other big names like Belmont Park, Saratoga, Aqueduct and Keeneland thoroughbred race courses; the singing group Boyz II Men; Applebee’s restaurants; Boar’s Head deli meats and cheeses; and the U.S. Naval Academy.

Perhaps its biggest splash is with EA Sports’ Madden NFL video game. Sumotext will continue to power dedicated short code for EA games through 2014.

“Sumotext powers our dedicated short code and provides in-game messaging solutions for our most popular titles like Madden NFL,” said Jaime Stella, senior producer for EA Sports, in an online testimonial. “Their platform and API’s have always been reliable, but their support and flexibility to adapt to our changing needs is why we renewed our relationship through 2014.”

The Sumotext executive leadership team has grown to include executive vice presidents John Styers and Sean Downey and senior vice president Elsbeth Cloninger. Business is good at Sumotext.

Miller believes mobile is the key to connecting media, social networking and e-commerce, and Sumotext is in a perfect position to capitalize.

“We believe that as traditional mass marketing channels continue to give ground to targeted, interactive channels, the mobile phone has become the only common linchpin capable of tethering multimedia, social networking, and commerce,” he said. “Since SMS is still the best tactic to collect email addresses, share social media sites and link customers directly to app downloads or commerce, our platform and tools can help any organization enhance any customer engagement strategy.”