Confession: my guilty pleasure and my true love are cupcakes. I go to great lengths to find the perfect cupcake, no matter which city I am in. In my quest to find the perfect cupcake shop, I search the web for all the local cupcake shops, read reviews and just recently started to turn to my trusty iPhone to use one of my location-based apps.

There is no denying that location-based apps are dominating the social space right now and are changing people’s approach to finding items or businesses. These apps are a simple way for business to build discovery and drive customer loyalty.  These interactions prove mutually beneficial: apps like foursquare allow local businesses to post specials and review data on check-in behavior and users can give tips, read reviews and redeem offers. Thanks to foursquare and businesses posting specials for check-ins, I have redeemed several discounts for free cupcakes, coffee and ice cream. I find myself visiting more local businesses to take advantage of specials they post via foursquare.

My increased reliance on these apps has highlighted areas that warrant further exploration. For example, I would love to see location-based apps recommend business or services based on my check-in behavior. Behavioral targeting would be a great way to facilitate new discoveries based on a user’s past behavior.

A recent Forrester report pointed out that adoption of foursquare and other location based apps is still too low to warrant strategies from major marketers. That may be the case, but adoption will likely increase with the recent Facebook Places launch and it’s time for big marketers to pay attention. With more and more people using foursquare and Gowalla and new location-based applications hitting the market, including Facebook Places, where is the future headed? Share your thoughts below (and any tips you have on the best cupcake shops in your city).

And in case you were wondering, here’s one of my favorite cupcakes from NYC:

image from billysbakerynyc.com

There isn’t a lot of variability when it comes to text ads. A search for mortgages leads you to ads that repeat the word ‘mortgage’ several times with perhaps a couple of rates thrown in. Most other keywords produce similar outcomes.

It’s rare that a simple text ad stands out among the crowd. And if it does, one is usually witnessing the work of an inexperienced search marketer (see our Playing with Matches column). So when there is a search campaign that thinks beyond normal constraints, it certainly needs to be called out. Tide’s search ads for its Loads of Hope movement break the traditional “rules” of search and build a brand in a channel typically seen as a simple direct response medium.

Though the ad in the screenshot broad matches into a less relevant query, there’s no denying that the ad has a couple of things going for it. At first you might wonder why Tide is showing up for Nashville, but in this case it only adds to the intrigue. Additionally, the landing page leads, not to the Tide homepage, but to a Twitter page where Tide can continue to have a conversation with those already interested after having clicked on the ad. Lastly, the Twitter page highlights Tide’s generosity with free laundry tweets for Tennessee flood victims rather than selfishly demanding something from its visitors. I don’t know how Tide is measuring success from this campaign, but from our point of view, it’s already successful.

Snaps for Tide.

This week, SearchShots introduces Best In Show, our new blog feature that allows team members to critique the work of others and showcase our standards for search marketing campaigns. Today, we are reviewing mobile search campaigns in the financial services category. Has a competitor (or anyone) caught your eye for being remarkable or awful in search? We want to hear from you! Email us at razorfishsearch@razorfish.com

In the US, Mobile phone internet usage penetration is projected to increase from 83.5% 2010 to 126.2% 2013 (source: EMarketer, November 2009).  “Searching for information” accounts for 66% of US mobile phone internet activities (source: Ruder Finn, November 2009), providing a new platform for our clients to reach potential customers.

Publishers are catching on and delivering new mobile targeted opportunities.  In 2009, Google released the functionality to target High End Mobile Devices (HEMD): devices that have full internet browsing capabilities, show standard HTML and can support conversion activity from start to finish.

We decided to search around in the financial services category to see who is taking advantage of the mobile search opportunity on HEMD.

Search Results and Mobile Site Experience for ‘Bank of America’:

Search Results and Mobile Site Experience for ‘Fidelity’:

When you compare Bank of America and Fidelity, it’s clear that Fidelity is not delivering on the mobile user’s intent, but rather opting their desktop search campaigns into HEMD targeting without a mobile strategy. The copy and the landing page are identical to the branded search results on a desktop. The message is not connected to the mobile user’s intent and the landing page is not easy to navigate from the small screen.

On the other hand, Bank of America’s copy has a call-to-action to download their mobile app, which is appropriate for mobile user intent. Their mobile messaging is relevant and the site experience is easy to navigate on the small screen.

Financial Services providers should take advantage of the mobile search opportunity: implement a local strategy, leverage mobile ads with Local Business Extensions and drive the user to nearest Branch/ATM.  The testing opportunities for mobile search are endless. Financial Service providers should also test to learn the intent of mobile brand searchers by rotating different messages and call-to-actions (i.e. supporting Mobile Banking App download, Branch/ATM locator, click-to-call for customer service messages, etc).

Our Mobile Search Recommendation: Isolate the mobile SEM experience from the desktop. Pay off the mobile search query with the right experience.  Improve your campaign’s ROI and position your client as an innovator among the competitive set. For more information, read our mobile case study that shows how a Fortune 100 retail client leveraged the advanced Google Mobile HEMD targeting.

Have you had a mobile search experience that you loved (or hated)? We want to hear from you, so post your comments.