Will online marketing and social media kill the jumbotron?

These days, it seems like everyone is asking whether something is about to kill something else: “Will html5 kill flash?” “Will the iPad kill Kindle?”

So, with tongue firmly in cheek, I thought, “I gotta get in on this killing spree.”

In my daily romp through my normal news sites, I stumbled upon an article about a guy named Fred Ehrhart who is taking advantage of online marketing’s incredible targeting capabilities to ask a question usually reserved for jumbotrons, billboards and banners being towed behind airplanes: “Will you marry me?” The ads are all long gone, but they directed his potential bride and anyone else who clicked to this landing page.

He asked visitors to “Please post to your Twitter, Facebook, blogs, and anything else you can with the Hash tag #SayYesD and tell your friends to do the same. Link back to this page and show people my list so they can understand how much I love Dalila. We are going to aggregate all your messages and show Dalila how many people think she should say yes.”

To answer my own question in the headline, I doubt that mobile devices can ever compete with the thrill of seeing yourself on the big screen at a ball game. So, don’t be afraid of these technologies. They’re not killers, they’re facilitators of true love.

Spoiler alert: she said yes.

On a side note, his approach was also a lot safer than this. Ouch.