Outdoor Advertising in Rural Markets, Challenges and Prospects

LADOKUN, ISAAC OLUJIDE

Department of Marketing

The Polytechnic, Ibadan,Oyo State, Nigeria.

Email: ladokunolujide@yahoo.com

ABSTRACT

A successful national economy depends on advertising, promoting sales, so that factory production is maintained, people are employed, and have spending power, and the money goes round and round. However, due to advancements in technology and global market, organizations need to move their products and services around the globe, so as to meet customer demands and needs. Attendant to this is stiff global competition that also involves advertising spending, effectiveness, largely in urban and rural areas. This development leads to the proliferation of advertising into components like billboards, bus advertising, neon signage etc, which is christened outdoor advertising. Its growing importance in terms of revenue/profit generation, and contribution to all the stakeholders, motivates the expansion of outdoor advertising into the rural market in order to sideline urban traditional advertising competitiveness and rake in additional revenues for the organization. The focus of this study is on the challenges and prospects of outdoor advertising in rural markets. Professional journals and research based articles have been extensively used as well as textbooks by revered authors in the discipline of marketing and other areas. It was discovered that structural development of outdoor advertising, in terms of static and rotational mobile e-billboards are innovative advertising niche that can transform the revenue generation, increased employment opportunities creation, arrest of the drift in population from rural to urban areas and increase the general economic development of Nigeria.