STUDY ON AUDIENCE PERCEPTION OF PRIME TIME ADVERTISEMENT

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CHAPTER ONE

Introduction

Prime time advertisement is the block of broadcast programming taking place during the middle of the evening for television programming. The term prime time is often defined in terms of a fixed time period such as in the evenings.Advertising is a non-personal way of passing messages of the products and services of an identified sponsor for the purpose of reminding, persuading and informing the prospects to make purchase.

In today’s society, prime time advertising has a profound impact on how people understand life, the world and themselves, especially in regard to their values and their ways of choosing and behaving. The field ofprime time advertising is extremely broad and diverse. In general terms, of course, an advertisement is simply a public notice meant to convey information and invite patronage or some other response. As that suggests, advertising has two basic purposes: to inform and to persuade, and  while these purposes are distinguishable  both very often are simultaneously present.

Prime time Advertising is not the same as marketing or public relations in many cases, though; it is a technique or instrument employed by one or both of these.

Prime time Advertising can be very simple, being local, national and a times it can be  complex, involving sophisticated research and multimedia campaigns that span the globe. It differs according to its intended audience, so that, for example, advertising aimed at children raises some technical and moral issues significantly different from those raised by advertising aimed at competent adults. Advertisement has enough power to change the public perception, mind and it persuades the people to buy a product and to adopt a new fashion or idea.

There are many different media and techniques employed in prime advertising; advertising itself is of several different kinds: commercial  prime time advertising for products and services; public service prime time advertising on behalf of various institutions, programs, and causes; and a phenomenon of growing importance today political prime time  advertising in the interests of parties and candidates.Research suggests that exposure of audience to prime time advertisement has played arole influencing the perception of audience to prime time advertisement.

  • Background Of The Study

Advertising began in the colonial times and could be traced to have started in 1928 with the birth of West African Publicity Limited.Derived from UAC,it was established to cater for the needs of the colonial masters in Nigeria and West Africa.This company later became an advertising agency in 1929 named Lintas with two other subsidiaries newly Afromedia, the outdoor medium and Pearl/Dean, the cinema arm.In the 1950’s new advertising agencies emerged.The medium of advertising was in its infancy in those days Federal Government owned National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) where the only television stations that operated in the four regions of East, West, North and later Midwest.

With the increase in practitioners and agencies,a regulatory body had to be formed to standardize their practices.A meeting of the agencies held at EbuteMetta, Lagos in 1971 was to metamorphose into Association of Advertising Practitioners of Nigeria (AAPN) with the objective of protecting practitioners against unfavourable business.The association was later renamed Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria.The need to establish an institution to regulate advertising practice became apparent. This gave rise to the establishment of Advertising Parishioners Council of Nigeria (APCON) by Decree 55 of 1988, later renamed Act 55 of 1988 by the civilian administration on November 1989, the first meeting of the association held somewhere in Ebute-meta, Lagos finally culminated to the birth of APCON.

In the 1990’s the sector came alive,it began to expand beyond advertising as full services public relation firms such as the Quadrant JSP and Quest were established. Also the era witnessed the mad rush of foreign affiliations. While some agencies sought this affiliation to help boost their human capital, others just joined the bandwagon just to feel among.Media Independent Practitioners Association of Nigeria (ADVAN), outdoor Advertising Association of Nigeria (OAAN) emerged.Today, Nigerian advertising industry, is making efforts to ensure that they measured up to global industry practice. Affiliations also avails them of technical knowhow in the areas of creativity and training. The industry has grown to shooting their adverts locally and injecting a lot of local content in their campaignsthe regulatory body of advertising, APCON, is living up to expectations by the measures put in place to sanitize the industry. Of note is professionalizing the practice to ensure that qacks are reduced if not flushed out completely. Again measures are adopted to ensure practitioners operate within set advertising standards.Sectional associations include broadcasting organization of Nigeria (BON), Media Independent Practitioners Association of Nigeria (MIPAN), Advertisers Association of Nigeria (ADVAN), Newspapers proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN) and Outdoor Advertising Association of Nigeria (OAAN).

  • Statement of Research Problem

Prime time advertisement portrayed in media have evoked many perceptions of the masses in our modern day. The commercialization of the media has been largely responsible for stereotypes perception of both old & young people  and have done immense harm or good to  the society.On the other hand, there is increasing use of chauvinist commercials which are used in advertising products which bears no relation either to their physique or needs of its audience. Some other times, the advertised product may have positive effect on the audience, hence, influencing their perceptions of the masses. In view of this, the present study will be focused on audience perception of prime time advertisement.

1.3      Purpose/ Rationale

In other to adequately carry out this work and to arrive at a specific result, the follow objective/ purpose are outlined below.

  1. To evaluate the impact of prime time advertisement on the masses.
  2. To ascertain the perceptions of the masses as to prime time advertisement.
  3. To give possible recommendations.

 

1.4      Research Questions

For the purpose of this research, the following research questions are outlined so as to help the researcher obtain valid responses from his respondents.

  1. How often do you watch and listen to prime time advertisements on television?
  2. Do you like programmes which are usually advertised in prime time programmes?
  3. How much of your time do you devote to prime time advertisement?
  4. What is your perception of prime time advertisement?
  5. Have you any way benefited from prime time advertisement?
  6. What are some of the things you benefited from prime time advertisement?

 

 

1.5 Scope of the study

Advertisements of products are avenues which products and other commodities are brought to the knowledge of the masses, the advertisement of this products are all schedule in such a way that each of the products have it own time of being advertised. The prime time advertisement of these commodities can have either positive or negative impact on the populace hence, making the populace have different perceptions about the advertised products. in view of this, the scope of the study will cover  audience perceptions of prime time advertisement .

1.6  Significance Of The Study

This study is significant in that it will provide the empirical basis for  the perceptions of the populace about prime time advertisement. It will also serve as a foundation for other researchers to carry out their own research and on the other hand, provide result and recommendations for the use of the populace.

1.7  Definition Of Terms

For the purpose of clarity, some key words used in this research work are properly defined below.

  • Populace: The masses
  • Commodities: Goods or Products.
  • Perceptions: View or  the state of becoming aware of something.
  • Sophisticated: Complex
  • Physique: size or appearance of  a person.
  • Persuade: Causing someone to do something.

Distinguishable: being different from others.