Clients' Perception, Extent of Adoption, and Level of Satisfaction With Multi-Platform Advertising Media Strategies (MuPAMS): Among Business Organisations in Ibadan, South-Western Nigeria

Introduction

Among the Africans, the concept of advertising of goods, services and propagation of cultural ideas using traditional African methods and approaches emerged with the use of Town Criers and oral-tradition respectively. In Nigeria for instance, the earliest known places of information disseminations are; the Kings’ palaces, the village squares and market places. Town Criers who are directly responsible to the traditional stool as a palace staff are in turn serviceable to the community at large by engaging in verbally transmission of an arrays of information such as; urgent information and announcements in form of today’s advertisements on various issues such as; community meetings, forth-coming ceremonies and festivals, visits by important dignitaries, policy statements, warnings on impending disaster, including marriages, births, deaths, personalities and bargains. Ogbodoh (1990) noted apart from Town Criers other traditional advertising approaches include product hawking and displays of samples (especially raw food stuff, meat and games) at strategic places along the farm-walkways and around the markets. These two approaches are still being practiced till date among the rural dwellers that resides in various villages and hamlets in Nigeria.

Modern day advertising practices started in Nigeria majorly by the colonial masters and their cronies and this continued until after Nigeria independence. The history of what could be termed as Western advertising practices could be traced to the invention of printing technology which great impacted on advertising globally. The first printing press in Nigeria was established in 1846 at Calabar, Eastern Nigeria by the Presbyterian Church and the first Nigerian newspaper dubbed ‘Iwe Irohin (Fun Awon Ara Egba Ati Yoruba)’ was established in December 1859 by Rev. Henry Townsend a foreign missionary to the Christian Missionary Society (C.M.S.) who had arrived Abeokuta much earlier on his mission assignment. Thus, the first newspaper advertisement in Nigeria appeared in ‘Iwe Irohin’ which contained information on cargo and shipping business. Thereafter, advertisements became regular column and content in early newspapers in Nigeria also the growth of printing technology birthed large posters mostly in black-and-white which pioneered outdoor advertising in Nigeria (APCON, 2000).

Further, APCON (2000) traced pioneering efforts in the advertising business and practice in Nigeria to the United Africa Company (UAC) formerly ‘The Royal Niger Company’ which established the West African Publicity Ltd. (WAP) in 1929 as the first advertising agency in Nigeria. The idea behind the establishment of WAP by UAC was to service the marketing and public relation and advertising support for the UAC business activities in Nigeria. However, the agency became notable as the father of modern advertising in Nigeria. There were opportunities in advertising businesses because of foreign interests and investments in the British colonies’ business environment penultimate to the Nigeria’s independence in 1960 Thus, use of outdoor advertising and cinematography (audiovisual media) became inevitable. Taking advantage of these scenarios, WAP under the major interest of UAC in 1959 established two other subsidiaries i.e. Afromedia (outdoor medium that pioneer outdoor advertising agency in Nigeria) and Pearl/Dean (motion pictures and cinematography). Furthermore, the West African Publicity Ltd. (WAP) later metamorphosed into a full-fledged advertising firm known as Lintas West Africa Ltd. in 1965. Lintas West Africa is the short form for ‘Lever International Advertising Service’ which belongs to the Unilever Group and was part of Lintas International until 1974 when the UAC sold off its interest to Nigerians as a result of the Indigenisation Decree promulgated in early 70s. Lintas is presently known as Lowe Lintas in Nigeria with some form of partnership with international advertising giants. Dughudje (1990) identified other big players in Nigerian advertising scene as Rosabel Advertising and Insight Communication that came as second generation of advertising agencies in Nigeria, Insight Communications Thereafter; numerous other agencies have emerged as home-breed companies.