The Nevada Department of Wildlife (NDOW) is Nevada’s outdoor recreation and conservation agency responsible for the distribution of hunting and fishing licenses for the state. After seeing strong growth through the pandemic, challenges arose to retain, recruit, and reactivate license holders after consumers starting going back to the office.
NDOW repositions its website to engage and secure new license holders.
NDOW’s website initially targeted hunters, featuring big game hunting on their landing page. Research revealed hunting imagery to be polarizing, particularly for newcomers to fish and game licensing which represents a significant portion of the agency’s licensees.
Elevate research uncovered that focusing on conservation efforts could yield two positive outcomes for the agency. Stronger community acceptance and more license applications. Conservation educates newcomers on the benefits of hunting and serves as a gateway for membership.
NDOW uses consumer research to test a theory and sees a 15% gain in license sales.
Anticipating a -3.5% YOY decline in youth licenses, NDOW was curious to learn what incentives and influences might reactive this segment of the population which is critically important for their livelihood long term. Using incentives tested in our research, NDOW hatched a new acquisition campaign that delivered a +12.5% YOY increase in applications and 15% gain in revenue in 6 weeks.
NDOW uses research to understand how to motivate people to get outdoors.
Wildlife and outdoor agencies across the country have been seeing a decline in outdoor recreation engagement post-pandemic. To capture future license holders, NDOW was looking to learn how to engage people in a way that inspired outdoor activity. Research with outdoor enthusiasts revealed insight on their motivations, leading to the development of new digital and video marketing campaigns centered around the wellness benefits of being outdoors which resonated nicely with their ideal customers.
Did you know that spending at least 120 minutes a week in nature is associated with good health & wellbeing? Divide that by 7 days in a week and you only need 17-minutes each day to improve your overall wellbeing. This research informed the NDOW “Take 17” Campaign.
“We’re trying to reframe how we engage people in the outdoors. Understanding where people are coming from is something that will have long term impacts.” – Strategy and Insights Officer, NDOW
