Today Razorfish released the sixth annual Razorfish Outlook Report.

The report drives home the fact that digital is on center stage right now. Consumers and technology are responsible for the shift  — marketers need to keep up.

Search VP Josh Palau provides the outlook for search. Explaining the concept “Search Everywhere,”  he points out that as consumers expect more and more information at their fingertips, smart marketers will make sure search is integrated into all aspects of marketing, not a standalone tactic.

We encourage you to explore the full report and check out the graphics on flickr.

This year, the Razorfish Search team sent Shawn Cheng, Search Account Manager at Razorfish, to SXSW Interactive and he returned rejuvenated. We’re excited to share his thoughts on his first trip to the festival in Austin, TX and we particularly love his SXSW Approval Matrix (with apologies and thanks to New York Magazine).

Being this was my first SXSW and the conference has been going on since 1987, I had a lot of catching up to do. SXSW has been a music festival since 1987. In 1994, the Film and Interactive portions were born. Tech evangelists, serious start ups and hordes of VCs make pilgrimages to Austin to check out the newest technology.

The back of every SXSW’I program lists attendees by company. I noticed that most companies only had a handful of representatives, but under ‘R’ there was a fat block of 40 Razorfishers, demonstrating our commitment to innovation. We were born digital, we bleed digital and we’re looking for people with the same passion. Did I mention we’re hiring?

I was lucky enough to be a part of SXSW history, as the Interactive attendance of 12,000+ outnumbered the Music portion for the first time in the festival’s 23-year history. I created this SXSW Approval Matrix to capture the spirit of my experience at the festival.

SXSW Interactive Approval Matrix

If you attended, I want to hear from you! Did I miss any noteworthy events that deserve a place in one of the four quadrants? Do you think I misclassified something?

We’re so pleased to have been able to participate in a Q&A session with an experienced search engineer, we’re going to forgive the narcissism required to pack yet another all-day event almost entirely with content irrelevant to everyone not infatuated with Google. The agency-relations team saved this one by drafting Daniel Dulitz, one of its few engineers who works on both paid and natural search, to represent the company for a few precious minutes. There’s nothing like hearing how something works from someone who helped build it. It’s all the more satisfying given how much Razorfish has contributed, by driving the growth of search marketing within so many large organizations, to Google’s reinvention of media and advertising. Thanks, Google, for finally looping us back in.

Though we can’t disclose what we learned, we’re pleased to share that one sneaking suspicion we’ve had about Google was ruled out: Last year, when Google banned A/B testing of landing pages across multiple domains, it was NOT because Google forgot that the $14-billion-per-year SEM industry pretty much grew up on A/B testing.

We spent a good minute scratching the ol’ noggin over these two charts from SEMPO’s 2010 “State of Search Engine Marketing” report. They show that this year, 47% of surveyed businesses said they handle search in-house. Last year, no one said they handle search in house. A careful read reveals a note stating that “in house” wasn’t an option last year. Since none of the other answers are appropriate for respondents running search in-house, and we don’t have one of those handy “n=” captions tipping us off as to whether in-house search marketers skipped the question or entered a misleading answer last year, we can’t actually compare results year-over-year. So why even publish the 2009 chart?

Focusing on 2010 hardly clarifies the issue. We’re very curious about search provider choices, but this categorization is confusing. How would Razorfish Search’s clients respond? With 96 full-time search people and an average tenure over three years, we undoubtedly qualify as a “paid search specialist” and a “SEO specialist.” Though search is only one of many digital services Razorfish provides, some clients perceive us as a “search agency” because help with search is what they originally came to us for. “Digital Marketing Agency” might seem to be the best fit, unless our client considers that Razorfish is a leader in experience design, site creative and technology — projects that don’t fit neatly under the “Marketing Agency” header. At least we can rule out “PR agency”!

One question for our friend Sara Holoubek of the Search Engine Marketing Professionals Organization: Did you outsource your search survey to a “survey expert” or a “search expert”?

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.