Making R3 More Effective: Message Testing for New Adult Hunters

The R3 community has heavily invested in reversing the downward trend in hunting participation by expanding its self-limited understanding and valuation of the nation’s populations of prospective hunters. A critical part of this expansion is understanding and engaging the so-called “adult-onset hunters” - people who did not grow up in hunting families but who hold an interest in the activity based upon complex and durable hunting-adjacent values. As part of previous MultiState Conservation Grants, the Wildlife Management Institute (WMI), DJ Case & Associates, and Southwick Associates used qualitative and quantitative research to investigate this high-priority audience and categorize them by value personas and the likely customer journey for each. As a result of that research, the R3 community now understands who this audience is, what motivates them, and the journey they will likely take to become new hunters. However, to operationalize these data, developing, testing, and validating messaging most effective at motivating these market segments to move beyond just thinking about becoming hunters and modifying their behavior to begin their hunting journey is critical. This project will generate a marketing strategy and test messaging to effectively communicate with the new adult audience on how to start hunting.  This purpose and intent of the project is to build upon previous market research into new, priority audiences most likely to adopt hunting and generate a marketing strategy based upon message testing to effectively communicate with the new adult audience on how to begin hunting. By using marketing ad templates and strategies, state agencies, NGOs, and other partners will be able to use the results to activate more new adult hunters with a smaller marketing effort and budget investment.  This project will generate a marketing strategy and tested messaging to effectively communicate with new, priority adult audiences on how to begin and continue hunting. By using marketing ad templates and strategies, state agencies, NGOs and other partners will be able to use the results to activate more new adult hunters with a more minor marketing effort and budget investment.