Phonological Analysis of Digital Advertising Campaigns in Nigerian Media Platforms and their Implications for Sustainable Consumer Education

This paper does a phonological analysis of the spoken English employed in advertising campaigns by Nigerian digital marketers. By answering four research questions, it provides insights into the phonological resources and linguistic strategies used by Nigerian digital marketers, their impact on audience engagement, and alignment with sustainable education objectives. The study employs a mixed-methods research design, with a qualitative phonological content analysis of language use in advertising campaigns and a quantitative analysis of data gathered from 100 responses to a digital questionnaire on audience perceptions and responses to the identified phonological features and linguistic themes. The study fills the gap in knowledge regarding how language can be leveraged to achieve the goals of advertising campaigns and sustainable consumer education. The study found Code-mixing, Pronunciation Variations, Alliteration, and Wordplay were among the strategies that gained the most customer engagement across platforms and resulted in behaviour change. It also found that messages about sustainable education goals were not very prominent in the campaigns. Based on the findings, the paper makes recommendations on how various phonological strategies can be employed to enhance the effectiveness of advertising campaigns and promote sustainable education. The study is hinged on Howard Giles' (1973) Accommodation Theory; Petty and Cacioppo’s (1986) Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM), and Mezirow's (1991) Transformative Learning Theory. The findings contribute to existing knowledge in the field of Nigerian English phonology, effective digital marketing strategies, and language resources that promote sustainable consumer education.