Boating takes front seat in new marketing campaign

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – In a letter to boating and fishing industry stakeholders, the Recreational Boating & Fishing Foundation’s president and CEO, Frank Peterson, announced today the group is taking the “Take Me Fishing brand to the next level.”

In essence, the Take Me Fishing campaign is being relaunched with a new look, feel and Web site.

In a separate letter to the industry, NMMA President and RBFF Chairman Thom Dammrich suggested this has particular relevance to the boating industry because the new campaign features boating more prominently than in the past.

“Grow Boating, Inc. and NMMA have worked hard with RBFF to create many synergies between Take Me Fishing and Discover Boating,” wrote Dammrich. “Most of the imagery features boats, and boating is purposely mentioned and woven in to all of RBFF’s media outreach. RBFF is also using the Take Me Fishing website, print advertising and events to drive prospects to DiscoverBoating.com.”

RBFF reported that, after six years of advertising, research showed the group that the Take Me Fishing message was creating awareness, but not a conversion to participation in boating and fishing. As a result, it decided last fall to take a different approach, selecting a new advertising agency, Colle+McVoy; updating the Take Me Fishing creative; redesigning the Web site; improving its media buy and mix, implementing a “critically important direct mail marketing component” and integrating its public relations efforts.

The centerpiece of the new Take Me Fishing campaign is the new TakeMeFishing.org Web site, according to Peterson, which he said would be the key destination where RBFF drives participants to take action. In fact, the group has blended AnglersLegacy.org into the new TakeMeFishing.org Web site to create a single online destination for boaters and anglers of all ages and experience levels. The foundation plans to add a social network component this summer.

Among the new features being added to the Web site are: a boat selection tool, a Fishopedia, a list of boating and fishing hot spots, a Little Lunkers section of the site dedicated to kids, and state-specific pages. This content migration will be complete by the end of April, according to RBFF.

As far as advertising is concerned, the group’s plans are not just national, but also regional. RBFF’s traditional media buy is being expanded to include regional radio and more online and print advertising.

“For the first time, we’re conducting simultaneous direct mail marketing in 30 states to help sell fishing licenses and we’re solidly integrating public relations efforts to support the campaign,” wrote Peterson. “We’re pleased to announce that we’ll be advertising for 12 months a year instead of three with the same-sized media budget!”

Finally, the group is making its new Take Me Fishing materials available free to stakeholders. The new Take Me Fishing Logo and guidelines are currently available on RBFF.org, an Event Planning Kit is coming soon, and available in June will be a Marketing Guide.

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