Every year, RBFF provides grant funds to state fish and wildlife agencies to develop angler and boater recruitment, retention, and reactivation (R3) initiatives. RBFF's 2023 State R3 Program Grants awarded approximately $207,000 to 10 programs in 9 states who contributed an additional $232,000 in project funds and in-kind support.
See information and links to case studies below for more information.
Texas: Female Angler Representation & Retention
Historically, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) experienced a high churn rate with its female anglers. To change this, TPWD created a marketing campaign to increase license sales retention rates among female anglers, with a focus on Hispanic women.
The campaign aimed to help diverse women feel seen in recreational fishing and encourage them to stay. To develop the campaign, TPWD leveraged messaging created from the RBFF national campaign, which was based on RBFF’s female angler research with partner Colle McVoy. TPWD then localized the messages and imagery for Texas women. Targeting women where they are, the campaign used online digital advertising, email blasts, social media and online surveys, running from July to October 2023.
The effort generated 2.5M impressions and 21K clicks to the landing page with an additional 107K engagements (i.e. comments, reactions, photos, shares) on social. On the landing page, 17K visitors clicked through to the TPWD license page. The campaign is ongoing, but thus far has received positive feedback. Messaging about the benefits of fishing resonated with women, who also appreciated being recognized.
Learn more from the case study.
Watch the Workshop presentation.
Texas: Utilizing Text Messages to Increase License Renewals
The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) aimed to retain and reactivate anglers by reaching lapsed fishing license holders in Texas through a text messaging campaign.
From May to September 2023, TPWD sent text message reminders to anglers at the onset of their license expiration, and at 60-day, 90-day, and 120-day intervals.
The campaign was overwhelmingly successful, confirming that text messaging is an important and well-received method of connecting with customers. In total, more than 400K text messages were delivered, with more than 25K clicks to the renewal page. In total, license renewals resulted in more than $184K in revenue, while the cost of running the program was only $10K.
Learn more from the case study
Watch the Workshop presentation.
Pennsylvania: New Audiences to Explore PA Waters
The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission (PFBC) developed and launched a digital marketing campaign to recruit new customers to fishing and boating, with an emphasis on reaching young adults in PA.
The campaign focused on building a fun and accessible personality for PFBC that was showcased on a new microsite, ExplorePAWaters.com, where they drove people to learn about fishing, find places to fish and purchase licenses and launch permits for their boats, outside the standard agency website. To reach young adults, the campaign ran from June to September 2023 with two 4-week flights, using paid search engine marketing (SEM), social media, display and Connected TV.
The effort generated 7.8M impressions across digital platforms, with 56K new users visiting the microsite. Snapchat and paid search were the highest performing platforms among the target audience. The campaign’s creative, which emphasized building memories together, resonated strongly with Millennial and Gen Z viewers, who engaged heavily with the campaign.
Learn more from the case study.
Tennessee: Boater Reactivation
The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA) aimed to increase registration renewals to lapsed boaters, as well as convert boaters into fishing license holders, if not already.
From April to September 2023, TWRA targeted lapsed boater registration holders with boat registration renewal ads via Meta (Facebook and Instagram), Snapchat, and a postcard mailing.
This campaign resulted in more than $717K in revenue in total. TWRA found that more modern methods of communications, such as social, where you can directly target people already online, was significantly more effective than traditional postcard mailings, with social driving 98% of the revenue collected. This was in part, thanks to social platforms’ ability to use inclusion lists and target directly those in the TWRA database.
