Results from a marketing survey recently released by virtual event service provider Unisfair indicate technology marketers currently value lead generation at a much higher degree than branding or customer retention. Additionally, marketers are shifting their priorities among their live and virtual event spending.

According to the study, 68 percent of the 500 respondents have made lead generation their top marketing priority. This statistic is far above the results for brand awareness and customer retention, with each pulling 16 percent of respondents.

The top emerging channels for lead-gen include social media (74 percent), virtual events (40 percent) and mobile (34 percent). Despite the high percentage of respondents who chose social media, 33 percent said unqualified leads were a major concern—with 16-30 percent of leads rejected as unqualified.

Meanwhile, the technology marketers indicated that they're shifting their spending on event platforms. Respondents are split on the value of physical trade shows as a lead-gen tool, with 40 percent saying they'll increase their spending and another 44 percent saying they'll decrease spending. A quarter of respondents, 25 percent, say they plan on increasing their spending on virtual events.

According to Unisfair CEO Hoang Vuong, the economy has been a major driver behind the interest in lead-generation strategies. "This research proves that the economic climate over the past year has made lead generation the unequivocal priority for technology marketers," he said in a statement. "It also indicates that virtual events are rapidly becoming mainstream thanks to their ability to help marketers arm their sales counterparts with better-qualified and intrinsically higher-value, sales-ready leads."