The “Recruitment, Retention, and Reactivation” (R3) movement aims to increase and diversify participation in and support for the shooting sports, hunting, and angling. This movement has evolved over the last decade and has been integrated into the operations of numerous state and federal agencies, nonprofits, and industry organizations. Current R3 initiatives are typically broader than more traditional "learn-to-hunt" programs. Recent efforts have focused on improving access, monitoring license data trends, reducing regulation complexity, tapping into the locavore movement, and diversifying the participant base. The long-term goal of the R3 movement is to ensure the relevance of hunting, shooting sports, and angling throughout all segments of society.

The Millennial and the Generation Z cohort make up the two largest population segments in the United States that are a target-rich opportunity for recruiting new hunters, shooters, and anglers. These two generations combined (collectively the “iGeneration”) make up approximately 42% of the population of the United States. However, we have failed to take full advantage of their specific marketing habits. As hunting, shooting, and angling recruitment programs targeting these generations are developed and implemented, there is a critical need to not only recruit them as new customers but also educate them on how our community collectively pays for conservation efforts with license revenues and federal excise taxes on equipment.

Previously, WMI worked with several state fish and wildlife agency marketing teams to create a database of digital marketing materials in the form of social media video vignettes. These were produced using young, diverse talent in regionally diverse settings that focused on what appeals to those cohorts (food, fun, friendship, self-reliance). For this initiative, we recognized a critical need to work with state agencies and other partners to broadcast those materials to potential customers with a national marketing campaign that is universal, organic, and quantifiable.

Our purpose was to initiate a national-level marketing campaign to test the previously created video recruitment materials in a manner that is quantifiable. To do this, we purchased social media advertising and marketing space to embed these materials and measure the conversion rates of the intended audience.

Working with its state agency-staffed steering committee, WMI purchased advertising opportunities in four markets across the U.S. (one per region). Video products were created in 2021 under the previous year’s Multi-State Conservation Grant Program (F19AP00100) administered by the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (AFWA) and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and were used to increase conversion rates of iGeneration members seeking out further information on hunting and shooting from agencies in states where they live or where they may wish to recreate. Conversion rates were measured using tracking pixels and other commonly accepted marketing techniques.

In the case of Tennessee (Figure 1), the marketing budget of $40,000 funded just over 3 months of advertisement buys, primarily on Instagram and Facebook. This resulted in $101,960 in revenue generated specifically by the recruitment ads – a 254% Return on Investment (RoI). It also resulted in more than 11.6 million impressions and almost 20,000 clicks, meaning that the videos saw significant active engagement (watching the video then clicking to navigate to the agency website). Of the videos used for this study, the “Hunting Helps” video, that explains how conservation is funded, was responsible for more than 40% of the impressions, and the “Deeply Human” video, that talks about the locavore movement and locally sourced food, was responsible for just over 38% of the impressions.

For Virginia (Figure 2), the marketing budget of $40,000 was directed toward Instragram and Facebook platforms and resulted in $98,774 in revenue generated specifically by the recruitment ads – a 247% RoI. It also resulted in more than 12 million impressions and almost 18,000 clicks, meaning that the videos saw significant active engagement (watching the video then clicking to navigate to the agency website). Of the videos used for this study, the “Hunting Helps” video was responsible for more than 37% of the impressions, and the “Deeply Human” video was responsible for just over 30% of the impressions.

In Nebraska (Figure 3), the marketing budget of $33,800 funded just over 3 months of advertisement buys, primarily on the Instagram and Facebook platforms. The specific licensing system used by Nebraska did not allow us to collect information about revenue generated by the campaign, so we are unable to report an actual RoI. However, by extrapolating the impressions and click results from Tennessee and Virginia, we feel that a conservative estimate of RoI for the Nebraska campaign is 100-125%. The Nebraska campaign also resulted in more than 5.5 million impressions and just over 16,000 clicks, meaning that the videos saw significant active engagement (watching the video then clicking to navigate to the agency website). Of the videos used for this study, the “Hunting Helps” video was responsible for more than 40% of the impressions, the “Deeply Human” video was responsible for just over 38% of the impressions, and the Recreational Shooting video that talks about the enjoyment of target shooting, was responsible for 15.7% of the impressions.

Arizona used a slightly different implementation of the video recruitment campaign. They tested YouTube and Facebook platforms, while also testing Teads Native Video, which places unobtrusive ads into contextually relevant locations (Figure 4).

During the campaign, more than 18.8K users that were directly attributable to the recruitment videos visited the azgfd.gov website. Paid social media advertising was the strongest driver of session volume despite a lower investment compared to other channels, emphasizing the efficacy of targeting niche interest and lookalike audiences on social platforms. Teads Native Video followed paid social in session volume and drove the highest average time on page, suggesting the Teads campaigns were effective in reaching high-quality, relevant traffic.