The Southeastern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies is partnering with the Council to Advance Hunting and the Shooting Sports (Council) and the National Wild Turkey Federation to launch a regional Hunt for Good campaign aimed at increasing support of legal, regulated hunting among non-hunters. Responsive Management’s Americans’ Attitudes Towards Hunting and Shooting Sports 2025 report shows that public support for legal hunting has been declining for several years. To address this, the National Wild Turkey Federation developed Hunt for Good. It is the only national marketing campaign focused on building cultural support for hunting by highlighting themes that resonate with non-hunters, such as stewardship, quality food, social connection, and wildlife health. In partnership with the Council, the campaign was implemented four times between 2023 and 2025, which was a limited national run, a Northeast effort targeting Boston, Philadelphia, and Washington, DC, and twice in Missouri. These efforts generated 45,652,842 unique impressions, reaching the middle 80 percent of the public that does not hunt but may be persuaded to support it. Like many marketing-focused Multistate Conservation Grants, early Hunt for Good efforts did not sufficiently connect Recruitment, Retention, and Reactivation (R3) work to the core outcome of increasing public support for hunting, relying instead on weaker metrics such as open rates, clicks, and time on page. This proposal advances the campaign by adding an evaluation component to assess whether content actually improves viewer perceptions. Using six original Hunt for Good creative themes (e.g., Hunt for Clarity, Hunt for Freedom), the Council and 2060 Digital, will create six theme-specific landing pages for the Southeastern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (SEAFWA) that will be created within the original and active Hunt for Good webpage. Pages will be hosted by project subrecipient 2060 Digital, the marketing firm managing ad buys, placements, implementation, and evaluation. Each landing page will explain why and how its theme represents a benefit of hunting. 2060 Digital will run ad buys and placements for ads associated with each of the six creative themes in or near major population centers across the Southeast that serve at least eight SEAFWA member states. Each ad will link to its associated landing page, and viewers will receive a pop-up survey assessing whether they fall within the target demographic and whether the content they viewed positively influenced their perspective of hunting. This approach was selected over broad-band surveying to ensure responses come only from individuals who actually viewed campaign content. Each landing page will also include SEAFWA-curated links for further information. Ad buys will be optimized throughout the campaign based on platform performance, and SEAFWA member states will be offered ads to run parallel efforts to drive organic traffic to the campaign landing pages. While standard outputs like impressions, clicks, and time on page will be tracked, the primary outcome will be survey data showing whether exposure to Hunt for Good strengthens support for hunting among non-hunters in urban areas who recreate outdoors, and which ads were most effective. Google Analytics will identify which supplemental links drew the most engagement, informing future refinements. Deliverables include customized regional landing pages, an evaluation report, and campaign assets for states and partners. By measuring whether the campaign actually improves public support for hunting, this project can model how R3 efforts should be tied to outcomes, encouraging broader adoption of stronger evaluation practices and raising expectations for future Multistate Conservation Grant applications across hunting, shooting sports, fishing, and boating.
Implementation of the Hunt for Good Campaign in the Southeast: Increasing Public Support for Hunting Among Non-Hunters
Fiscal Year
2026
Organization
Southeastern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies
Grant Number
F26AP00464
Categories
Human Dimensions, Marketing, R3, Research
R3
Yes