SearchFuel and GroupM Search are doing a blitz giveaway today on Twitter, giving four (4) people a free VIP pass to MediaPost’s OMMA Mobile, a one-day event where advertisers and industry leaders come together to talk all things mobile marketing. This pass covers your registration for the event, plus the breakfast and lunch on-site.

But you have to act quickly! OMMA Mobile is tomorrow, Thursday, October 29 at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza from 8am til 5:30 or so.

For your chance for a free pass, follow these three simple steps by 3pm CST today:

1. Send a Reply or Direct Message (DM) to @SearchFuel on Twitter
2. Tell us you want to go to OMMA Mobile
   
3. Tell us your company name (Sorry, I do need this. Not for marketing purposes – but when we got these passes I had to agree they’d be used for brand advertisers only, so I need to keep my promise.)
   

We’ll draw 4 names from all of the Tweeps who DM us and I’ll DM you back by 3:30pm CST if you’ve won a pass. From there we’ll connect by email or phone to get you registered.

So why should you see and be seen at OMMA Mobile? For starters, it’s a gathering of more than 200 advertisers and mobile marketing experts which makes for a great day of networking and conversation about where the industry is going. GroupM Search is kicking off the day by hosting the breakfast session, featuring a round table discussion with Google, Microsoft, Joule, Outrider and JumpTap about current challenges and opportunities facing the mobile marketplace today. The day unfolds from there as MediaPost’s mobile columnist Steve Smith emcees the event, and a handful of industry leaders take the stage, including a keynote address by John Zehr, SVP and GM of ESPN Mobile. Other speakers and panelists include Kodak, Paramount, the AP and the Weather Channel, as well as  Google, Microsoft and Yahoo, and many more panelists from across multiple areas of mobile expertise.

You can check out the full agenda here.

SO GET TO IT! Pull up your favorite Twitter client and send us a tweet to enter to win your pass to OMMA Mobile. See you in LA.

SearchFuel is now on Twitter. Follow us – @SearchFuel – for updates on the latest blog posts by our search marketing strategists from around the world, industry commentary, and most importantly, conversation with our bloggers, our followers, people we follow, and you, our readers.

There are 30 global bloggers from GroupM Search, Outrider, MAXUS Search, MEC Interaction, MediaCom Search and Mindshare Search who contribute to SearchFuel. We look forward to joining the digital media and search marketing conversation on Twitter and truly making search a global, social conversation.

If you have a suggestion for a topic or a question you want explored on SearchFuel, shoot me a Reply or DM. And thanks, in advance, for the follow!

Cindy Kerber Spellman
Editor, SearchFuel

SES San Jose 2009 is underway at the McEnery Convention Center, where optimization, search of the future and metrics seem to be important topics to marketers this year. Don’t miss the chatter – stop by one of the two Blogging Centers at SES, brought to you by SearchFuel and search marketing agency Outrider, featuring computer stations with free internet access to check your email, post to your blog or send off a few tweets.

While you’re at it, feel free to shoot us a note to searchfuel@gmail.com.  Send us your feedback on SES and the discussions taking place, and we’ll feature a few of your postcards from the edge here.

Oh. And weather.com is reporting gorgeous weather on their hour-by-hour forecast. I’m jealous you’re there and I’m here, living vicariously through our bloggers & co-workers on the ground at SES. If you don’t mind me suggesting, why not step outside with a laptop for a little sunshine and fresh air, catch up on all the stories on SearchFuel and join the conversation – your comments to our posts are welcomed by our writers and help fuel further search discussion.

Enjoy SES and your stay in San Jose!

If you couldn’t make it to Search Insider Summit this winter but have a question you want posed to the experts here or about a specific topic on the agenda, shoot me a note at SearchFuel. I’ll get the question answered for you and deliver it here on SearchFuel.

A few hours into it and the promised agenda is already delivering. Gord Hotchkiss returned again as emcee, and the morning kicked off with an analysis of the role of search and online marketing in the Barack Obama/2008 Presidential campaign. Check back for a POV about that discussion before Search Insider is over.  Session discussions then looked at the role of analytics and data in search, and best practices in today’s environment of SEO and paid search. Day Two and Three promise to deliver debates about Google, emerging platforms and their relevancy to search, and discussions about in-house marketing in the bigger search world. I’m curious to hear from in-house marketers about what they are doing and the challenges they face that might bring insights into stronger agency relationships.

If you’ve never attended a Search Insider Summit, you should put MediaPost’s Spring and Winter summits on your radar for 2009.  Whether you’re a CMO, a marketer at the brand level, on the media side or on the search marketing side, it’s something to consider. (And if you’re an advertiser, email me and I’ll give you a great tip about MediaPost’s VIP perk so it’s an easy fit into your 09 budget.) Search Insider Summit is not a trade show. It could be called a conference.  But having attended and sponsored Search Insider Summit for three years now, I’ve decided it’s something different.  It’s a destination search marketing event that serves as a valuable forum to build relationships and really get insight into what some of the key industry leaders are thinking about and what they’re doing in the space. It’s search experts, engines, advertisers, competitors and other industry specialists coming together in a think-tank environment to discuss the current trends in search, challenge what is working and what’s not, and take a look at where the channel is going. You’ll start to see familiar faces time and again whom you look forward to hearing speak or catching up with during breaks; as you know, this is one of the few times of year you’ll have a few days to spend with them – Ron Belanger from Yahoo!, Ken Fadner from MediaPost and James Lamberti from comScore, just to name a few. And that’s just the morning for you. Your afternoon provides a well-deserved mental break and takes on a much different look (and level of exertion) with adventure networking activities, capped off with fabulous dinner galas at night to replace those calories you lost while skiing, golfing or white water rafting, unwind, have some wine and officially call it a day (only talking marketing if you want to).

SearchFuel will have more coverage from this year’s winter event, and I hope to see you here next Spring.

SMX East

Look on the bright side. Sometimes challenges can be a good thing. In this case, your search marketing challenge can put $100 in your pocket.

If you are at SMX East this week, stop by the Outrider Booth (#418) and complete an Ask The Expert card, sharing with us a question about challenges you’re having with your search marketing campaign or with your marketing and business objectives in general. We’ve brought to SMX some of our search strategists that lead search strategy for many of the world’s largest advertisers. They can answer questions specific to your challenges, or if you provide your email address, one of our strategists will reply to you with an answer to your question.

Answers to the questions submitted to us will be posted by our experts live on SearchFuel from SMX and throughout the week.

Couldn’t make it to SMX?

Visit www.outrider.com/asktheexpert and submit your question there or email your question to searchfuel@gmail.com. Be sure to include your name and contact info.

So I mentioned $100? Yes, that’s part 2 of this good news. (Part 1 was having someone help you solve a marketing or search problem!) All Ask the Expert questions during SMX will be entered into multiple drawings for $100 American Express Gift Cards, which winners can pick up live, on-site at the Outrider booth at SMX or we’ll mail it to you. How will you know if you’re $100 richer? Check back on SearchFuel 10/6 and 10/7. Winners will be posted here daily.

Look at it as a way of getting paid for participating in three days of smart search conversation.

Have a great time at SMX and we look forward to your questions.

We see search as a shift in the advertising space. Consumers’ expression of intent signifies a change that gets lost in Google’s dominance and the tactical discussion of how to be relevant in the search results. The ability to provide a point of view and commentary on the impact this has for our clients, some of the largest buyers of media in the world, is a unique voice brought to the marketplace. The goal here at SearchFuel is to provide exactly what search engines demand – content that is relevant and of value. The content here will not be a rehash of the daily news; you won’t find breakdowns or recaps of conferences. What you will find are immensely talented minds at work. Individuals who are passionate about the industry, the direction its going and the impact those things have on our clients.

Some of what you find here over time may feel irrelevant because the view will be through a prism focused on the trees inside the forest we live. But, we believe a certain butterfly effect exists. What matters to our clients today will be relevant in some way to all clients. What matters now will have impact with varying immediacy to varying groups.

We hope above all else to provide an alternative means to fuel your mind and think about search. If at the end of the day we challenge you and you challenge us in our opinions and perspectives, then SearchFuel is a success. Our challenge is simple – an alternative view to what exists today and a variety of voices delivering that to you daily.

Welcome to SearchFuel.

Chris Copeland is CEO of GroupM Search – The Americas. GroupM Search is the global integrated search marketing specialist within GroupM, with search marketing divisions including Outrider, MediaCom Search, MEC Interaction and MindShare Search.