A Systematic Review on the Extant of Outdoor Advertisements Literature in Developing Countries ()
1. Introduction
Advertisement has a lengthy history that may be traced back to ancient culture. However, the main strength of advertisement was most visible with the formation of capitalist economies in the nineteenth century, when advertisement was predominantly based on newspapers and magazines (Eckhardt & Bengtsson, 2010). During that time, lithography, a painting process that used water and oil, was established. The discovery of lithography enabled the fabrication of posters, however it was during ancient Egypt that the first documented outdoor advertisement was marked (Eckhardt & Bengtsson, 2010).
From that point forward, popularity grew steadily, and outdoor advertisements began to be employed in many areas with substantial foot traffic (Eckhardt & Bengtsson, 2010). The advertisement business increased faster than ever throughout the twentieth century, thanks to advances in new technologies such as radio, television, direct email, mobile devices, and the internet (Eckhardt & Bengtsson, 2010).
Following the emergence of posters in the advertising sector, the first record of an outdoor advertisement being hired was established in 1867. Advertisement as an industry grew too quickly from that time, and by 1870, for example, there were roughly 300 enterprises in America dealing with developing outdoor advertisement only ready to shed in the new industry of advertisement. The first 24-sheet billboard was shown during the Paris Exposition in 1889. Advertisements were mostly employed on fences and buildings in town centers during the time. With the introduction of motor cars such as Ford in the 1920s, the emphasis of advertising switched from expositions to roadside because of development in Technologies. The industry continued to grow and standardize, and in the United States of America, standard billboards of roughly 1900 square feet were established, allowing large marketers such as Coca-Cola and Kellogg’s to begin advertising widely and nationally. The National Outdoor Advertising Bureau (NOAB) was established in 1915 to elevate the status of advertising. Advertisements in Europe began in 1962, when the JC Decaux business began outdoor advertising. From the 1940s through the 1970s, French and British corporations operating in Asia and Africa first ignored nationalist and local ambitions.
However, in the long term, the new spirit of African independence, which altered consumer attitudes toward advertising, forced the French and British to adapt and exploit the spirit (Dianoux & Linhart, 2012). The emerging middle class was the target audience of advertisements throughout the decolonization era. With their commercials, they abandoned the traditional paternalistic approach toward natives. During the early stages of independence, there was a depiction of future native middle-class individuals who took charge of establishing their country rather than colonial development operations. More favorable pictures aided during periods of military rule, expropriation, and nationalization of the economy. During decolonization, the only advertisement that was prioritized was tobacco advertising in particular. In Egypt, for example, popular advertising was for culture cigars, which are associated with the elite class of people; traditional life styles and the lower class were associated with water pipes; and the new middle class, which was striving to transition from a traditional life style to a modern one, was associated with cigarette advertisements. As a result, the tobacco industry’s advertising targeted the third group (Shechter, 2005). There is no clear established history of how the advertisement sector originated in Tanzania. However, the growth of the media sector in Tanzania is claimed to be inextricably linked to the development of the advertising industry (Jules) (n.d). The history of advertising in Tanzania is intertwined with the growth of the media business, which has gone through four major periods. The initial phase was ruled by German colonial powers. Advertisements and media were purposefully developed during the German rule to fulfill the communications interests and demands of colonial government. It was also around this period that missionaries edited a large number of documents in order to complete their mission (Mandalu, 2016). During British rule, there were media outlets developed to provide propaganda in behalf of the colonial authority. Following the British administration’s media, there was an establishment of media within the nationalist movement to cause concern for human rights and self-governance (Mandalu, 2016). During the postcolonial period, the formed socialist independent Tanzania was primarily concerned with controlling dissent and promoting socialism development ideas through Tanzanianization of all media (Mandalu, 2016).
In fact, outdoor advertising has been studied for a long period of time and still attracting the attention of researchers even in recent years (Abu Hasna & Ajeeb, 2020; Suprayitno, 2016; Vidiadari, 2020). Studies conducted in Nigeria by researchers such as Idigbe (2012), Chijide (2012) and Ladipo (2012) have shown that billboards as outdoor advertising contributes to economic growth. According to Chijide (2012), billboard has become a key positive influence in Nigerian marketing environment. He went saying billboard advertising is the second biggest contributor to objective driven media engagement worldwide, and it is the most enduring and effective among advertising media options. Invariably, it is the vehicle advertising that is active at all times, for the reason that it is ubiquitous and it reinforces brand availability. The application of marketing principles and techniques to promote a social cause, idea or behaviour has been effectively used in many areas such as health, cigarette smoking, infant and maternal mortality and so on (Abu Hasna & Ajeeb, 2020; Suprayitno, 2016; Vidiadari, 2020).
Despite the effectiveness and efficiency of billboards and outdoor marketing towards awareness creation in both developed and developing economies, its relevance and usefulness is questionable in recent days (Vidiadari, 2020). This can be partly as a result of technological advancement and application of new means of promoting products and services using digital means (Swallehe, 2021). Walking in many parts of Tanzania urban area you may find quite a lot of unoccupied/vacant billboards. This is an indication that either it is too expensive using this means of advertising or its dominance as the means of displaying products has come to an end.
It has not been established as to why many billboards are vacant as no any study has been conducted at least in Tanzania that explains this hypothesis. Few studies have attempted to investigate executional elements related to the effectiveness of billboard advertising. However, a handful have given outdoor advertising extremely precise recommendations. Some research revealed that a novel or particularly creative execution might boost recall or attention to billboards when analyzing the consequences of outdoor advertising (Fitts & Hewett, 1977). While in other nations, outdoor advertising is losing ground to other types of promotion, the situation in Nigeria is rather different. This is supported by the number of studies conducted in this field. According to a research done by one Olaghere (1997), outdoor or out-of-home advertising, such as billboards, appears to draw a lot of attention. This is due to the fact that it is one of several methods for capturing the public’s attention (Olaghere, 1997). He went on to say that outdoor is also the most visible medium because structures carrying advertising messages can be seen everywhere, and it cuts across literary barriers, making it easily understood by both literate and illiterate audiences, and it is free because viewers do not have to pay to gain access to it.
Billboard advertising or hoardings are meant to instantly capture a person’s attention and make a memorable impression, leaving the reader wondering about the advertisement after driving by it. They generally consist of a few phrases in huge text and a hilarious or captivating image in vivid color. According to Olaghere (1997), billboards share the goal of attracting the attention of passersby and impressing them with a succinct but effective sales message as they are going by. As Benson-Eluwa (2005) puts it, billboard advertising attracts more attention due to its size and position or site; color benefits; lighting signs; and mass appeal. As a result, billboards are the most visible form of advertising. Billboard advertising is a useful channel of communication for drivers and pedestrians because the posters stand alone and make their presence known in a manner that no other kind of advertising does. Billboard advertising is used in Nigeria to deliver various messages on health/pharmaceuticals, beverage and food, beauty and cosmetics, soft drinks, beers and other alcoholic drinks, communications services, and other types of information, including political advertising. However, one area that may not have been advertised on billboards is solid waste management. The Outdoor Advertising Association of Nigeria (OAAN) is the authority in charge of regulating and supervising outdoor advertising in Nigeria. OAAN has been accused of complex and ambiguous regulations governing outdoor advertising, resulting in a chaotic situation and defacing the beauty and aesthetics of the environment. This study seeks to address and find answers to the following questions;
1) What is the direction of research for outdoor advertising in developing countries?
2) Is it losing ground to the other means of advertising?
3) What is the current situation in as far as research studies in outdoor advertising?
4) What is going to be the future of outdoor advertising at least in developing countries
2. Methodology
Search Process
Conducting rigorous studies of the state of knowledge development is critical for assessing any discipline’s academic advancement (Williams & Plouffe, 2007). Reviewing previous research not only offers an overview of the progress made in a certain field of study, but it also exposes gaps and expands preceding findings (Creswell, 2009). In addition, evaluating prior research attempts indicates theoretical understanding, methodological complexity, and research direction in a field of study (Hesse-Biber, 2010; Krippendorff, 2004; Williams & Plouffe, 2007). Reviewing refereed journal articles is perhaps one of the most effective ways to position the academic landscape of a field of study (Wilkie & Moore, 2003). Although this procedure is time-consuming since it frequently entails the collecting and analysis of large amounts of data, it is critical for measuring a discipline’s success while also guiding future research direction in terms of topical, theoretical, and methodological trends (Williams & Plouffe, 2007).
The review was carried out at Mzumbe University Dar es Salaam Campus Collage in Tanzania’s Dar es Salaam, and databases such as Google Scholar, Microsoft, Base, and Research Gate were used to find relevant papers for this analysis. Two very qualified college librarians conducted the search. The datasets above contains a total of 165 published papers from 2010 to 2021. Google Scholar has the greatest number of publications, followed by Research Gate, Microsoft, and only a few from the Base database. Only 45 papers appeared to be relevant to our research after a thorough review. We will no longer be reviewing projects or dissertations and will only be reviewing published papers. Furthermore, because some of the articles were overlapping across many databases, we decided to remain with distinct pieces (i.e. if there are two papers of same nature from two different databases, then we decided to take one). The majority of the study was conducted in the Middle East, Far East, Latin America, Eastern Europe, and a few African countries. The study also finds that, despite the fact that sport is popular in Africa and that outdoor billboards advertising marketing and sponsorship help the economy, African researchers are not spending much in outdoor billboards advertising marketing research.
3. Results and Discussion
The findings are organized into five major sections: the number of published outdoor advertising publications, authorship characteristics, study themes and viewpoints, research methodologies, and areas for further research. Although this study is confined to journal publications published between 2010 and 2021, outcomes are presented in connection to studies published before to the time under examination, if applicable.
3.1. Number of Published Articles on Outdoor Advertising in Developing Countries
As explained above, this analysis is based on five databases namely; Google scholar, Base, Core, Researchgate and REFSEEK for articles published between 2010-2021 with scholars/researchers from developing countries. A total of 65 items were searched using the criteria that they be either outdoor advertising or billboards advertising and the authors should be originated or the studies should be conducted in developing countries. After screening them the number of article published reduced to only 45 articles. This is an indicator that either outdoor advertising is losing ground to the other means of advertising or the apatite to research outdoor advertising is not there. Figure 1 below indicates where the articles were taken from.
3.2. Topics and Perspectives Mostly Covered by Researchers
The articles analyzed can be grouped into four main themes namely; proper
![]()
Source: Authors own computation 2021.
Figure 1. Article from different sources.
designing of billboards as the means to achieve competitive advantages, effects of billboards on drivers’ performance, influence of billboards in creating brands awareness and effects of billboards in stimulating sex behaviors.
With regards to the way billboards have to be effectively designed as the means of creating competitive advantage, Abu Hasna & Ajeeb (2020) studied the best way of designing 3D billboards in Jeddah Saudi Arabia. These changes have been the main driving forces of the rapid increase in globalization. Accordingly, advancements impacted business ideas, knowledge and information amongst varied and scattered people located round the globe. One of the most significant impacts of globalization on the business world is the enormous empowerment of the consumer as a global citizen. Terkan (2014) asserts that the consumer has become more powerful and important in the twenty-first century than in previous years, and capturing and retaining customers informs the need for effective management of advertising and marketing processes to meet the challenges of an increasingly globalizing world. According to Hutter (2015), customers are bombarded with commercials, necessitating that businesses devise new methods of capturing their attention. On the other hand Suprayitno (2016) studied the Creativity and its impact of advertising electronic LED in Jakarta-Indonesia. The study by Dianat & Allahdadi (2016) investigated the image role in advertising design and found out that in the process of designing billboards selection of proper images plays an integral role in the success of billboards advertising. Failure to align the proper images on the billboards adverts will results into failure to achieve the intended objectives. In this category we have also included the aspect of modelling billboards as part of literature in the design of the outdoor advertising.
Table 1 shows that majority of the publications above have been done in the year 2016 equals to 3 articles, followed by the year 2015 which has 2 publications and years 2017, 2019 and 2020 have 1 article published. This is to say from 2010-2014 there were not publications in the area and this is quite alarming. It is not the scope of this investigation to analyze the reasons as to why enough publications are directed towards outdoor advertising. (Figure 2)
In terms of the authors’ countries of origin, Iran has 5 publications followed by Indonesia 2 and India and Saudi Arabia both has 1 publication. (Figure 3)
Another important topic covered was how billboard adverts destruct drivers performance in the high ways. Quite a good number of researchers have devoted time and efforts to investigate the way billboards especially electronic ones impact the drivers’ performance in the high ways. It was revealed that billboards distract drivers more than other elements in their actual driving surroundings such as trees, buildings, and other visible items (Edegoh, Nwanolue, & Ezeh, 2013; Praise & Appiah, 2019; Zekiri, 2019). It was established in the previous studies that drivers are more drawn to pictures on advertising billboards, but whether the sort of images presented on billboards may impact a driver’s performance is still to be determined yet. The “visual pollution” from roadside
![]()
Table 1. The studies conducted in the area of billboards design.
Source: Authors own compilations (2021).
![]()
Source: authors own computations.
Figure 2. Publications in different years from 2010-2021.
![]()
Source: Authors own computations 2021.
Figure 3. Publication by countries.
advertisements, according to Edquist et al. (2011), is a potential motorist distraction. These roadside advertisements may not only attract the driver’s attention, but they may also influence the driver’s thoughts. According to Chattington’s research, visual pollution has a detrimental influence on driving behavior. According to Edquist et al. (2011), this negative impact might harm the driver’s output performance as well as their mindset. As indicated by the symposia at the recent International Conference on Driver Distraction, roadside advertising has gained attention alongside other possible driver distractions. There isn’t enough room in this article to discuss the totality of the relevant research and international legislation surrounding roadside advertising, however Horberry et al. (2009) summarized it at that conference. Reviews of collision rates connected with billboards appear to suggest that billboards are associated with greater crash rates, particularly at junctions, when driver workload is either high or extremely low (Farbry et al., 2001; Gunatillake, Cairney, & Akcelik, 2000; Wallace, 2003). However, correlation does not always indicate causal relationship.
Driver distraction is widely recognized as a significant contributor to traffic accidents. While accurate estimates of the exact contribution of distraction to crashes are difficult to obtain, it is conservatively estimated that approximately 30% of all crashes involve driver distraction (Wang et al., 2019), with concern that roadside advertising, in the form of digital billboards, may be a significant component of the distraction from outside the vehicle. According to a recent research, roadside advertising has an influence on driver behavior, but the impact varies depending on the qualities of the driver and the features of the advertisement (Oviedo-Trespalacios et al., 2019; Shechter, 2005; Urban et al., 2020). Several simulator and on-road studies have been conducted to date to investigate the effect of billboards on various metrics of driving performance. For example, Young et al. discovered in a simulator research that the presence of advertisements on rural roads increased the amount of time drivers spent outside the allocated lanes by four times (Fortenberry & McGoldrick, 2020; Wang, 2015; Young, 2009). Another tiny simulator research backed up same conclusion. To yet, investigations on the effect of billboards on speed have yielded mixed findings. Other researchers working on billboards and driver performance include Meuleners, Roberts, & Fraser (2020), Edquist et al. (2011), Dukic et al. (2013), and Anani (2020), to name a few.
This investigation also looks at billboard advertising and customer purchasing habits. Several research have been undertaken to study how billboards influence customer purchasing behavior in various sorts of items in various nations. According to Nyarko, Tsetse and Avorgah (2015), the majority of respondents believe that billboard advertising is an effective strategy for raising awareness and influencing customers to purchase the appliances of their choice. Another researchers Pand & Gui (2016), investigated the INFLUENCE OF ADVERTISEMENT MESSAGE ON FITBAR BILLBOARD TOWARDS BRAND AWARENESS AND ITS IMPLICATION TO BRAND IMAGE and found that billboards advertising is very effective in terms in delivering the massage for awareness creation and image building. The impact of billboards advertising on consumer buying behavior was studied by Zeqiri, Ibrahimi & Zuferi, in Macedonia and the findings revealed that, billboard advertising is important and has an impact on consumer purchase decisions. Another study was conducted in India by Chopra (2017) on the Relationship between Customer Attention and Billboards Advertising with Special Reference to Consumer Durables. The study employed regression analysis to determine the relationship between customer attention and billboard advertising. The key finding of the study was that there is a strong relationship in the retention of consumer durable brands and billboard advertising. Another study in the area was the one conducted by Mehta (2020), in Pakistan and the findings show advertising through billboards has favorable impact in terms of creating awareness and consumer perception positioning. Adetunji & Mohmad Yazam (2012), from Malaysia investigated the customer satisfaction on digital billboards advertising. The result shows there is a statistically significant relationship between digitalization of bill-boards and digital bill-boards in formativeness, and audience satisfaction. No statistical relationship between irritation and audience satisfaction. It was found that after the introduction of location to the relationship between irritation and audience satisfaction was significant. Khan, Husseiny, Khan, & Khan (2016), investigated Billboard Advertising and Customer Attention in Pakistan. Effective advertising through billboard should be based on variety, reality, quality and attractiveness. The results show that the chosen variables have an impact on billboard advertisement and hence the objective of this research met.
Others researchers investigated different topics and could not be grouped into the three major topics analyzed above. The table below summarizes the different studies conducted by different authors in the area of outdoor billboards advertising.
Source: Authors own compilations.
4. Methods Used
Regarding the dominant methods used to investigate the extant of literature in the area of outdoor billboards advertising in developing countries, it can be summarized that, majority of the studies employed qualitative 47% of the total 42 articles reviewed. This was followed by quantitative investigations whereby around 35% of the reviewed articles employed quantitative analysis and the remaining 18% employed both quantitative and qualitative designs or simply mixed methods.
These figures assist in the whole process of explaining the fact that overwhelming majority of the researchers use qualitative analysis to investigate outdoor billboards advertising at least in developing countries. Descriptive analysis seemed to be the most preferable means of analyzing the quantitative investigations of which simple statistics such as frequency distributions and measure of central tendency are the dominant methods of data analysis. Very few studies have gone a little bit further to employ quantitative analytical software such as SPSS, SAS and STATA in analyzing collected data, Other less used quantitative analytical approaches are analysis of variance, analysis of covariance, multivariate analysis of variance, and rank analysis of covariance, t-test, and factor analysis. Some papers used a variety of quantitative analytical approaches, while others only used one. Again, interview approach seemed to be an appropriate means for data collection especially in qualitative studies. Case study strategy has been used in many of the studies conducted and used in our analysis.
These findings indicate that outdoor billboards advertising research has shifted away from conceptual discourse and toward a larger reliance on measurable facts. They also imply that scholars and practitioners have addressed the difficulty of establishing the success of outdoor advertising on organizational performance. However, qualitative publications continue to be prominent, indicating that the theoretical underpinnings of outdoor marketing continue to attract major study interest at least in recent years.
5. Discussion
The Systematic Review on literature in the area of outdoor marketing in developing countries reveal that, researchers in this part of the world have started not giving more emphasis in studying this area for the reasons which cannot be easily established. The shortage of papers published in this area of study is a justification that more and more researchers are losing interests in researching this area or the relevance of outdoor billboards as the means of creating competitive advantage has gone at least in developing countries. This is proved by number of papers published between 2010 to 2021 in developing countries, in addition to the fact that majority of these papers were published a bit long time ago. In this investigation only 65 articles were published from 2010 to 2021 by researchers in the five databases namely, GOOGLE SCHOLAR, BASE, CORE, REFSEEK & RESEARCHGATE. From 65 articles collected, only 42 qualified in this analysis after taking out
It is worth mentioning the fact that, the reviewed papers in our analysis have addressed various issues relating outdoor marketing in developing countries from different angles. For example, a good number of studies have investigated the designing and modeling of outdoor billboards. Notable studies investigated the designing and modelling of outdoor billboards include but not limited to the following (Abu Hasna & Ajeeb, 2020; Suprayitno, 2016; Liu et al., 2019; Siddiqui et al., 2016). These researchers investigated the best ways of designing and modelling outdoor billboards as the means of creating awareness in different settings. Customers are bombarded with ads, according to Hutter (2015), mandating that firms create new means of attracting their attention. Suprayitno (2016), on the other hand, investigated the Creativity and its Impact of Advertising Electronic LED in Jakarta-Indonesia. Dianat and Allahdadi (2016) researched the image function in advertising design and discovered that when creating billboards, the selection of appropriate pictures has an important part in the effectiveness of billboard advertising. Failure to align the correct visuals on billboard advertisements will result in failure to accomplish the intended goals. We have also incorporated the aspect of modelling this category.
Another key point discussed was how billboard advertisements negatively impact driver performance in a variety of ways. A large number of academics have committed time and effort to investigating how billboards, particularly electronic ones, affect drivers’ behavior in significant ways. Billboards were found to distract drivers more than other components in their real driving environment, such as trees, buildings, and other visible things (Praise & Edward, 2019). Previous research has shown that drivers are more drawn to visuals on advertising billboards, but whether the type of imagery provided on billboards affects a driver’s performance is yet to be discovered.
According to Edquist et al. (2011), “visual pollution” from roadside billboards is a possible driver distraction. These roadside advertisements may not only catch the driver’s eye, but they may also affect his or her thinking. According to Chattington’s study, visual pollution has a negative impact on driving behavior. According to Edquist et al. (2011), the driver’s output performance as well as their psyche may suffer as a result of this unfavorable influence. As evidenced by the symposia at the last International Conference on Driver Distraction, roadside advertising has risen in prominence alongside other potential driver diversions.
Another group of researchers investigated the outdoor billboards and consumers buying behavior. These researchers investigated the way billboards advertising can influence the purchase intention of the buyers in different settings and products. Dianat & Allahdadi (2016) investigated the influence of billboard advertising on consumer purchasing behavior in Macedonia, and their findings suggested that billboard advertising is essential and has an impact on customer purchase choices. Chopra (2017) did another study in India on the Relationship between Customer Attention and Billboard Advertising with Special Reference to Consumer Durables. Regression analysis was used in the study to examine the association between customer attention and billboard advertising. The study’s major conclusion was that there is a substantial association between consumer durable brand retention and billboard advertising.
Other researchers investigated different areas of the billboards outdoor advertising using different methodologies. It was not possible to bring all of them here but we have presented these researchers and what they have investigated above. In the final analysis it can be reported that, the researchers appetite to investigate outdoor is on diminishing end as a handful of studies are published in this area at least in developing countries. This is to say either the prominence of outdoor advertising as the means of creating awareness is either going down or the development of technology or science has enabled to use cheaper but effective means of advertising. In all of the reviewed not even a single study investigated the impact outdoor billboards adverting has in creating competitive advantage.
6. Conclusion
The purpose of this study was to undertake a comprehensive evaluation of previous research studies on outdoor billboard advertising marketing in developing nations. This is an essential examination that will be carried out to discover how practitioners and researchers dealt with the issue of outdoor billboard advertising marketing in this region of the world. The inquiry begins with an introduction and history of outdoor billboard advertising in order to comprehend the significance and history of the element. It also included a discussion of the notion of outdoor billboard advertising marketing. In section two, various literatures on outdoor billboard advertising marketing in developing countries were reviewed and classified into four major themes: outdoor billboard advertising marketing design and modeling; outdoor billboard advertising marketing and driver destruction; and outdoor marketing and consumer purchasing behavior. We also examined the methodological techniques used in the evaluated research (quantitative approach, qualitative approach, mixed method, questionnaire, interview, contents analysis, and review studies). In the discussion section, we have offered further explanations of the key subjects discussed as well as the primary prospects for future research.
It can be concluded that, the research into outdoor advertising is on diminishing end as very researchers are investigating issues in this area. This is justified by number of study obtained from five different databases. The fact that, there are not studies which explain the impact of outdoor advertising on organizational performance is an indication either the relevance of outdoor marketing as important tool for advertising is diminishing or researchers’ interest is going down.
Limitations and Area for Future Investigation
The current study, like every review study, is hampered by a variety of flaws. For example, from 2010 to 2021, all of the publications analyzed were for outdoor billboard advertising marketing for developing nations and were sourced from Google scholar, research gate, Microsoft, and Base databases. As a result, this research does not include outdoor billboard advertising marketing in other areas of the universe. We employed a systematic review in this study, thus future studies should undertake meta-analyses of outdoor billboard advertising marketing in developing nations. As a result, a meta-analysis study to find often and significant elements on effective outdoor billboard advertising marketing in emerging nations is widely anticipated. It is also said that outdoor billboard advertising marketing is a growing trend, particularly in developing nations, thus future researchers should undertake studies utilizing more powerful statistical data analysis techniques. This is because the bulk of the research examined did not go beyond descriptive and inferential statistics for data analysis.