A National Campaign to Connect Millennials and Generation Z with Hunting, Shooting, and the Outdoors
Strategic Priority
Recruitment, Retention, Reactivation (R3) - Marketing
Project Documents
No project documents available.
Project Description
This proposal leverages products from a previous MSCG (https://vimeo.com/showcase/hunt-fish, Password: WMI) visually and emotionally appealing to the Millennials and Generation Z cohorts. It will use state-of-the-art marketing strategies to distribute those products and track conversion rates. These products will raise awareness about the role of hunting and shooting in conservation, with the outcome of the target audience engaging and emotionally connecting with our broader conservation system. Our goals are to quantitatively increase these generations' conversion rates and drive the sale of equipment and license purchases that result in funding for state agencies. Using representative states from all AFWA regions, we will implement a national marketing program in test markets using marketing firms with proven track records with state wildlife agencies. Marketing materials will be distributed evenly across the four regions using methodologies that allow us to track their impacts. Expected outcomes include measurable increases in license sales and retention in test markets and increased sales of products, which generate WSFR funding for states. Both outcomes should generate quantitative outputs with real conservation impacts through increased funding due to license, permit sales, and equipment purchase.
Project Facts
- Organization Name: Wildlife Management Institute, Inc
- Organization Status: NGO classified as 501(c)(3)
- State: Pennsylvania
- Obligation: $470,538
- Start Date: 01-01-2022
- End Date: 12-31-2022
Results
Through this grant, WMI provided $100,000 per treatment state to outside marketing to implement the study. Conversion rates were measured using tracking pixels and other commonly accepted marketing techniques to determine the impacts on license purchasing behavior. Currently, the data is still being evaluated, but several treatment states saw a return on investment of 200% over the study period (each $1 spent with an outside firm resulted in $2 in license sales).
Objective 1: Evaluate the effectiveness of recruiting Millennial Conservationists by implementing a national short-form video advertising campaign in 4 to 8 regional markets using creative products developed under a previous MSCG.
WMI worked with the six states participating in this project (AZ, TN, KY, NE, VA, IA, ) to coordinate advertising using short-form recruitment videos in markets across the U.S. (stratified by region).
Video products were created in 2021 under a previous MSCG project. They were designed to increase conversion rates of Millennials and Gen-Z members seeking further information on hunting and shooting from agencies in states where they live or where they may wish to recreate.
Two states (KY and IA) served as controls by implementing these video products organically from within their agency. The four treatment states (TN, AZ, NE, VA) contracted with outside marketing firms to implement the marketing videos.
The data for this project is still being analyzed. However, preliminary data suggest that several treatment states saw a return on investment of 200% over the study period (each $1 spent with an outside firm resulted in $2 in license sales).
Videos used for this study can be found at https://wildlifemanagement.institute/videos. Permission to download those videos can be obtained by contacting WMI. Videos are also available to download on the Council to Advance Hunting and the Shooting Sports R3 clearinghouse at https://cahss.org/r3-overview/r3-community-and-clearinghouse/.
