ABSTRACT

Outdoor advertising messages are difficult to avoid because it is placed strategically and use special appealing techniques especially a digital billboard that slides products which reduce boredom while it also used to reinforce the recall of brand names and pay offs. The research examines the influence of outdoor advertising on its publics with a case study of Ikeja City Mall in Lagos state. The research is anchored on three theories: Uses and Gratification Theory, Psychodynamic theory and perception theory. U and G theory stated that audience is considered active and not passive in determining the effect that the media messages have on them, Psychodynamic theory holds that for a persuasive message to be effective or considered effective, it must succeed in altering the psychological functioning of the recipient(s) in such a way that he or she will respond overtly to the model of behaviour suggested by the communicator while perception theory dwelled on the fact that people perceived messages differently. The research design for this study is quantitative with the use of cross sectional survey method while the data collection instrument is questionnaire. 200 copies of questionnaires were administered to the respondents who were drawn within Ikeja City Mall using non-probability sampling technique particularly purposive sampling method and out of 200 copies of questionnaires administered, 192 copies were retrieved for analysis. The data were analysed and interpreted using descriptive statistics (frequency and percentage method). Findings show that matured men and women dominated the number of people who visited Ikeja City Mall while minors visit the place in accompany of their parents or elders because majority of the visitors at the Ikeja City Mall are between the age of 16-40 years and above. It is evident that visitors to Ikeja City Mall were being exposed to lots of outdoor advertisement ranging from billboard, poster, transits media etc. Also, large numbers of respondents were influenced by outdoor advertisement within the ICM. It is recommended that conscious use of colour, graphics, models and strategically placement of advertisement in such a way that will be environmental friendly are the keys to enhance outdoor advertisement.