ABSTRACT
Social media have greatly influenced the way advertising is perceived. It creates awareness on particular products, builds brand image and improving sales. Through the social media, target audience can be streamlined based on demographical variables such as age, sex, occupation, educational qualification, etc Seemingly, it very paramount in today's business world. Owing to the importance of the social media, this study therefore examined the effectiveness of Coca-Cola social media advertisement in influencing purchase decisions of University of Benin Mass Communication students.
The study was anchored on the Perception Theory and the Attitude Change Theory as its theoretical framework. It also adopted the survey research design and the questionnaire was used as instrument for generating data from respondents. A total of 100 students from the Department of Mass Communication, University of Benin were selected as sample size and studied.
The analysis of the data generated discovered that a high percentage of students are exposed to social media advertisements and that storyline, graphics, characters and Sound aesthetics are factors that attracts respondents to social media advertisements. It also discovered that social media advertisements are very effective in influencing the buying behaviour of students.
Therefore, the study recommends that Social media advertisers should come up with better strategies in crafting and developing their advertising messages in order to engage students for improved results and patronage. It also recommended that organizations should critically observe all the components of an advertisement such as storyline, characters, picture aesthetics and sound aesthetics before releasing to the audience. This would help them better capture the minds of consumers and consequently influence their purchase decisions and behaviours.
