Information Technology Usage by Advertising Agencies in Lagos, Nigeria

The study investigated the usage of information technology (IT) by advertising agencies in Lagos, Nigeria. Thirty-four agencies were randomly sampled from a list of 76 registered advertising agencies. Each of these agencies had at least four basic departments. One professional was randomly selected from each of the departments. Questionnaire was administered to the chief executives of the agencies to obtain information on the availability and impact of IT on the agencies, while another type of questionnaire was administered to the selected professionals to obtain information on the use and impact of IT on the individuals. Twenty-one of the chief executives returned the questionnaire while 146 of the selected 166 professionals completed theirs. The results of the study show that all the agencies had computer systems and telephone facilities but a few of them did not have fax machines and about half of them had no e-mail/Internet connections. Computer use varied among the departments within the agencies but other IT resources were used basically for similar functions. IT use has led to increased productivity, customer satisfaction and increased profit level of the agencies, while the professionals have enjoyed significant improvement in their productivity, creativity and quality of output. As a result of this, it is recommended that the advertising agencies in other parts of the country should adopt the use of IT. (African Journal of Library, Archives and Information Science: 2000 10 (2): 113-124