CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
Advertising is a form of communication used to encourage, persuade, or manipulate an audience (viewers, readers or listeners; sometimes a specific group) to take or continue to take some action. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common (IAB, 2012).
Advertising may also be for the purpose of reassuring employees or shareholders that a company or organisation is viable or successful. Advertising messages are usually paid for by sponsors and viewed via various old media; including mass media such as newspaper, magazines, television advertisement, radio advertisement, outdoor advertising or direct mail; or new media such as blogs, websites or text messages (Gibson, 2012).
Data Driven Advertising for internet users is the simplified resource on how their data is used to serve advertisements to their web browsers either as pop ups or by other means, where that data comes from, and how it moves through the ecosystem has been a serious issue of consideration by many computer/internet users and various researches has been carried out on this subject matter. Some quarters has advocated that its about making use of the consumers data to help them reach their goals, and consumers get the most from their online experiences and more profit is generated to the advertiser. (Briggs et al, 1997)
Many questions used to go through the minds of internet users on why he/she is seeing the advertisement even though he has not given a command that could warrant that to the computer. Internet users will also be considering how the advertiser knows what they (internet user) like there by thinking that something is going on behind the scenes. Targeted advertising happens for good reason in most cases, some online advertisers has explained how data is used to make the web more relevant to user and it will also be for mutual benefit (Gonzales, 2013).
When a consumer visits a web site, the pages they visit, the amount of time they view each page, the links they click on, the searches they make and the things that they interact with, allow sites to collect that data, and other factors, create a ‘profile’ that links to that visitor’s web browser. As a result, site publishers can use this data to create defined audience segments based upon visitors that have similar profiles. When visitors return to a specific site or a network of sites using the same web browser, those profiles can be used to allow advertisers to position their online ads in front of those visitors who exhibit a greater level of interest and intent for the products and services being offered. On the theory that properly targeted ads will fetch more consumer interest, the publisher (or seller) can charge a premium for these ads over random advertising or ads based on the context of a site Denning, (1982).
Behavioral marketing can be used on its own or in conjunction with other forms of targeting based on factors like geography, demographics or contextual web page content. It’s worth noting that many practitioners also refer to this process as “Audience Targeting” (NSFNet, 2001).
Advertisers may also deliver ads based on a user’s suspected geography through geotargeting. A user’s IP address communicates some geographic information (at minimum, the user’s country or general region). The geographic information from an IP can be supplemented and refined with other proxies or information to narrow the range of possible locations. For example, with mobile devices, advertisers can sometimes use a phone’s GPS receiver or the location of nearby mobile towers.[28] Cookies and other persistent data on a user’s machine may provide help narrowing a user’s location further (Lester, 2013).
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Online data driven advertising is a large business and is growing rapidly. it is growing rapidly for several reasons. There are more mobile devices available to internet users especially personnel and student in the academia based on the need for adequate information which is readily available on the internet, connectivity speeds have improved (which, among other things, allows for richer media ads to be served quickly), screen resolutions have advanced, internet publishers are becoming more sophisticated about incorporating advertisements, and consumers are using mobile devices more extensively thereby increasing largely the population of internet users(Paksta, 2007)
Despite all these advantages Privacy Concerns are still expressed by internet users on the collection of user information by publishers and advertisers thereby raising consumer’s concerns about their privacy. Many internet users have reservations about the data driven advertising approach using online behavioral targeting by tracking users’ online activities, advertisers are able to understand consumers quite well (Seabrook, 2008)..
Scammers can also take advantage of consumers’ difficulties verifying an online personal identity, leading to artifices like phishing (where scam emails look identical to those from a well-known brand owner) and confidence schemes like the Nigerian “419” scam which is the major problem of internet users in Nigeria.
All these are the reasons why the focus of this research is to analyse the perception of internet users in Backcock University and University of Lagos about data driven advertising (Templeton, 2008).
AIM AND OBJECTIVES
This research is aimed at analyzing the perception of internet users of data driven advertising in Babcork University and University of Lagos withy the following objectives:
1. To find out the views of internet users in Babcock University and University of Lagos about data driven advertisement.
2. To assess the level of patronage of goods and services advertised through data driven advertisement by internet users in Babcock University and the University of Lagos
3. To determine the factors influencing the use of data driven advertisement by internet users in Babcock University and University of Lagos.
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
1. What is the perception of internet users in Babcock University and University of Lagos about data driven advertisement.
2. Does internet users in Babcock University and University of Lagos patronize goods and services on data driven advertisements.
3. What are the factors influencing the use of data driven advertisement bu internet users in Babcock University and University of Lagos.
HYPOTHESES
The following hypotheses were found relevant to the above stated problems and objectives, and thus tested in this study:
Hypothesis 1:
Ho: data driven advertisement is not significant in achieving the set goals by internet users (Babcock University and University of Lagos)
Hi: data driven advertisement is significant in achieving the set goals by internet users (Babcock University and University of Lagos)
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
This study is carried out with the view of finding out the perception on internet users of data driven advertisement and also find out the level of patronage of internet users for goods and services being advertised through this medium and also to ascertain if it has some negativities and risks associated with the use of data driven advertisement.
The result of this study will be used to enlighten and educate the internet users on the issues associated with the use of data driven advertisement; to further enlighten internet users the current practices by advertisers online based on the experiences of the users that participated in the research.
The research work will be of vital importance to the stakeholders and website publishers that engage in online advertisement on the views of internet users about their method of advertisement and the need to meet up to delivering good and quality services to their clients and their potential customers.
SCOPE OF STUDY
The scope of this research work is based on the internet users in Babcock University and University of Lagos on their views about data driven advertisement. This is an area populated with people in the academic e.g. lecturers, undergraduate and postgraduate students which make use of internet for most of their academic and personal activities including social networking.
This study is concerned with how the internet users make use of data driven advertisement.
LIMITATIONS
Major limiting factors of this research project include:
1. Paucity of printed literature resources such as books on the topic
2. Limited time
3. Insufficient funds led to a production of a limited number of questionnaires. The epileptic nature of electric power supply was also a challenge.
DEFINITION OF TERMS
In the course of this study the following terms relating to the subject matter will frequently be used:
Internet User: visitors to a website which are users who visit a site but do not register or make any effort to provide credentials on the website or a visitor who registers their identity with the website through the website registration process or through a Facebook or Open ID interface
Advertising: is the activity or profession involved in producing adverts to describe and draw attention to commercial products and services via a public medium in order to promote sales or attendance.
Data driven Advertising: A system and method of advertising, targeting and distributing advertisements over a distributed information network includes a client application that displays targeted advertisements on a subscriber’s computer and a server that manages an advertisement database and provides advertisements to the subscriber’s computer
Social media: is a group of internet based applications and websites that enable users to create and share content or to participate in social networking.
Internet: is a global network connecting millions of computers which are linked into exchange of information and electronic communication.
Website: is a place on the world wide web that contains information about a person, organization, educational institution, government or corporate entities.
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