Evaluating the use of internet as a medium for marketing and advertising messages in Nigeria

Nigeria’s active internet subscriptions (GSM), as at February, 2015 stand at 83,209,380 (NCC, 2015). The Internet is the modern marketers’ choice. Despite its great potentials, it is still largely under-utilized in Nigeria. This study surveyed the popularity and acceptance of the Internet as a medium for communicating marketing and advertising messages; the category of people who seek advertising and marketing messages online, the extent of their internet usage and possible challenges associated with the use of the Internet as a medium of marketing and advertising in Nigeria. Findings revealed that young people between the ages of 18 to 45 years form the substantial majority of internet users in Nigeria. Although, majority of the respondents claim to be aware of the availability of marketing and advertising messages online, only 4%, majorly working class between the ages of 32 to 45 claim they use the Internet basically to seek advertising and marketing messages. Others obviously use the Internet more for social networking than seeking advertising and marketing messages. Key words: Internet, Marketing, Advertising, Medium, Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Promotions, Marketing Mix, Marketing Strategy, Nigeria.