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Digital billboards help make the perfect 'promposal'

Students turning to outdoor digital signage advertising to invite their dates to prom.

May 4, 2015

Prom proposals, or "promposals," have become a big deal in recent years, and digital billboards have been helping with the big ask, according to manufacturer Watchfire Signs.

Watchfire said in a recent announcement that digital outdoor advertising is a perfect way to make a promposal — "it's bold, easily programmable with the right message and makes an impression."

The ability to quickly share a promposal on social media via photos and posts has encouraged would-be prom attendees to up their game. High school students, male and female alike, are looking for a creative and noticeable way to surprise a potential prom date, the company said.

Last month, Watchfire client Jed Renfroe from Renfroe Outdoor needed to accommodate a special last-minute request. Renfroe's son wanted to use one of his dad's digital boards to ask his girlfriend to the prom.  The only problem was that the "ask" needed to be done right away, and Renfroe's ad designer was unavailable. Renfroe contacted Spencer Gross, a project specialist with Watchfire's Digital Support Group. Gross created an appropriate piece of content and used Ignite OA to immediately add the content to the playlist of a board designated by Jed Renfroe. All of those efforts paid off when his son's girlfriend said "yes."

Even the digital billboard at Watchfire's own headquarters has gotten into the promposal trend. Just two weeks ago, the relative of a Watchfire employee used the 19 mm billboard outside the company's front door to ask a fellow student at Westville High School to prom. That story had a happy ending as well, the company said.