The Recreational Boating & Fishing Foundation hosted a record 45 state fish and wildlife agencies Dec. 6-8 at its 2011 state marketing workshop in Phoenix.
The workshop focused on the importance of marketing and communicating with anglers and implementing integrated marketing efforts to increase fishing license sales. Established in 2008 to bring together participants from RBFF's State Fishing License Marketing Program, the workshop was expanded to include all 50 states in 2010.
"Convening state agencies at the state marketing workshop and getting them to engage in a dialogue about marketing efforts is critical," RBFF president and CEO Frank Peterson said in a statement. "We're working to advance these state agency partnerships in an effort to increase fishing license sales and boat registrations nationwide, which in turn generates funds needed for state conservation projects."
Workshop participants took part in discussion around the 2011 program results and the direction for 2012. Roundtable discussions also facilitated important dialogue about ways to better engage and retain anglers using e-mail and social media. Additionally, keynote speaker John Seabreeze discussed the parallels between fishing/boating and golf and shared results from successful consumer acquisition and retention programs in the golf industry that can be applied to fishing.
Launched in March 2008, the RBFF's State Fishing License Marketing Program was developed to increase participation in the sport and generate awareness of the connection between fishing license sales and conservation efforts.
To date, 34 state partners have sold more than 1 million fishing licenses through the program.
