By Leo Valiquette

A trade show has “a carbon foot print that would leave David Suzuki twitching and reaching for his heart medication.”

That memorable line came Thursday afternoon from George McTaggart, VP of marketing at local cyber-security firm Third Brigade. He and Mark Emond, business unit executive, North American field marketing, at business intelligence software maker Cognos, now part of IBM, squared off at OCRI’s Zone5ive marketing event yesterday in a friendly tit-for-tat over the merits of using eight marketing activities and tools for lead generation.

At one point, Mark shot back at one of George’s tirades with the comment, “Pinocchio, your nose is touching the back wall.”

It’s safe to say this was the most entertaining OCRI event I have ever attended, and not only because moderator Kelly Kubrick, owner of Online Authority, also threatened to upstage the debaters with her own presentation skills. The content from all was crisp, informative and candid, regardless of whether one agreed with the viewpoint on offer.

George and Mark each had 90 seconds to make the case for or against each of the eight tactics, with the audience voting on who emerged the winner. The eight were trade shows, white-paper syndication, direct marketing (by either e-mail or snail mail), webinars and seminars, search-engine marketing, a website, telemarketing and social media.

Both men argued their points well, labeling each of the eight as either “naughty” or “nice” in keeping with the spirit of the season. However, once the dust had settled, all had earned a “nice” endorsement from the audience, with the exception of white-paper syndication. “Who has time to read what too often comes across as a blatant sales pitch?” appeared to be the point that earned the one “naughty” nod from the audience.

In retrospect, however, the overwhelming “nice” result shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. The tactics under scrutiny in this debate are only individual tools in a complete marketing toolbox. It’s a matter of choosing the right tool for the job, which begins with an understanding of what that job is. What works in one context may not work in another. It all depends on the company, its product, its market and how one particular marketing activity can reinforce or complement another. A social-media channel, for example, may be an excellent means of lead generation for a company targeting a specific age group or market vertical, and be a dismal failure for another.

What’s important is that the effort, in whatever form, is:

1. Current and relevant to an organization’s business-development objectives and has been identified, through market research, as an effective way to reach a desired category of customer.

2. Focused and targeted, again at a desired category of customer or specific market vertical.

3. Revisited, evaluated and revised. Which, of course, requires that some kind of metrics or analytics are in place from the get go to confirm whether the effort is generating the desired impacts and outcomes.

4. Expendable. If it’s not working, scrap it and try something else.

Technorati Tags: marketing, lead generation, Cognos, Third Brigade. OCRI, Zone5ive, David Suzuki