Awarded ‘Best of the Best’ in Mobile; US State Department’s Deployment of President Obama’s Text Speech Excerpts Wins Again

December 15, 2009, Redwood City, CA – Last week, the Mobile Excellence Awards, produced by Little Monster Media, announced its 2009 Mobile Excellence Award winners at their prestigious event held in Los Angeles, CA on December 7th. In attendance, Clickatell won first place in the “Best Mobile Viral Campaign” category for its SMS service and its work with The US State Department, sending SMS messages to the people of Cairo, Ghana and others around the globe during President Obama’s historic speeches earlier this year.

“SMS is an amazing technology; it can be used to reach people in all corners of the world for a variety of life-changing purposes. From payment alerts, to remittances, to remote airtime top ups, to important communications such as Obama’s global message of peace, people count on their mobile phone–specifically SMS–to improve their lives,” commented Pieter de Villiers, Clickatell CEO. “Individuals representing more than 100 countries took advantage and signed up to receive SMS excerpts, some were even able to have 2-way conversations with the President himself, something that has never been done before. We are continually impressed with the results our customers are able to achieve using Clickatell’s high value SMS services.”

Mobile Excellence Award winners were selected based upon strategic initiatives and objectives, impact of technology used, creativity, ease of use and reach, and execution and proven market success. Judges for the 2009 Mobile Excellence Awards were comprised of an esteemed panel of industry leaders and luminaries who were all in attendance the evening of the event.

“Clickatell demonstrated creative leadership in the mobile industry with their global, viral campaign and we look forward to watching them continue to drive mobile innovations,” said Sarah Miller, Founder & Chair, Mobile Excellence Awards. “The mobile market is experiencing tremendous growth and transformation, despite the economic downturn. As we head into 2010, we believe growth will continue and we’re already looking forward to next year’s Mobile Excellence Awards.”

Giving people a voice, who might not have even been able to view these historic speeches, and creating an industry first "Mobile Town Hall Without Borders," this extraordinary mobile SMS campaign reached many in all corners of the world. Officials at the US State Department responsible for the SMS service program commented on the deployment, “We applaud Clickatell for its ‘herculean effort’ to make this unique event happen; the Clickatell team was efficient, experienced, knowledgeable and professional.”

Incredible SMS service speech responses have been collected on the US State Department website at http://www.america.gov/sms-comments.html. Actual text comments include:

• “Thank you so much Mr. President, this is the greatest speech I have ever heard, it is very inspiring, he was reaching out and we should not fail him, the speech make my tears fall, thank you.” – Saudi Arabia


• “Many thanks for your excellent service. Can I get the sound of this speech?” – Iraq


• “Thanks for the fantastic quotes from Obama mesmerizing speech...” – Egypt


• “Good evening! Thanks for an SMS of Obama speech. In my opinion its good speech if he will take it into action, especial to solve the problems of the Middle-East.” – Tanzania


• “Thanks for your nice services.” – Bahrain


• “I appreciate Mr. President's support to the dialogue among communities. It is an effective way to solve the problems including Palestine and Kashmir and bring peace in the world.” – Pakistan

The MEAs were founded & created to recognize the best in the mobile entertainment industry including media, marketing and technology. The annual Mobile Excellence Awards are one of the most influential and prestigious events in the Mobile Entertainment industry and hit unprecedented milestones in its second year. Doubling its attendance and award submissions this year, MEA processed submission entries from more than 12 countries. CEOs flew in to Los Angeles from around the world to join the mobile glitterati for the evening. International delegates on hand represented countries from Ireland, Israel, Turkey, London and Russia.

No matter what your business, mobile communications are booming and will continue to make a difference in reaching customers anytime, anywhere – and you can reach any cell phone in the world using Clickatell’s SMS-as-a-Service Gateway. Visit www.Clickatell.com today to SMS-enable any application, website or system. Offering immediate capability to send and receive messages to and from any application, Clickatell’s Gateway is the first online, self-provisioning SMS gateway in the world, with the widest range of APIs available today for mobile SMS developers.