How a Unique Integrated Media Strategy Is Helping to Transform an Old Pastime

Fishing may be one of America’s oldest pastimes, but a great many Americans don’t feel welcomed into the sport, especially women. That is changing drastically through an innovative program transforming the way fishing is perceived and a unique media strategy that is breathing new life into and attracting a more diverse audience to the sport.

It starts with the Find Your Best Self on the Water campaign for Take Me Fishing, which promotes new research that shows the profound and possibly life-changing benefits of fishing for women and girls.The media strategy for the campaign harnesses the power of these research insights through unprecedented partnerships with influential, yet atypical (for fishing), brands, media companies and publishers. From the media partners to influencer and celebrity engagement to the gorgeous custom content, none of it is what you’d expect. It’s stopping industry influencers like Cindy Gallop “in their tracks.”

The custom content and activations across partners like Hypebae, Vanity Fair and Forbes is giving fishing a reputation refresh by telling stories of the impact fishing has had on real women’s lives with the goal of elevating women and helping them see fishing and boating in a new way, including:

Hypebae Partnership: Leveraging their continuous pursuit of driving culture forward, Take Me Fishing partnered with Hypebae to create custom content and a digital experience to reposition fishing and promote the new benefits of participation to its young, diverse and influential female audience. “On the Open Water” features two influential female creatives, Kenzy McGruer and Olivia Cheng, who share how their love of water and fishing breathes life into their creative practices and lifestyles. This has been shared across social media like Instagram and Twitter.

Vanity Fair Partnership: Known for pushing celebrities to get out of their comfort zones, Vanity Fair invited actress and comedian Ellie Kemper to try fishing for the first time to promote the new benefits of fishing and the impact it can have on women’s lives. The result is Fish Out of Water: long- and short-form videos full of helpful fishing how-tos and hilarious fishing puns.

Forbes Partnership: Take Me Fishing partnered with Forbes and its continuous celebration of badass female leaders and their achievements. Running through September, the partnership will leverage multiple marquee moments celebrating female success, including Forbes Self-Made Women and 50 Over 50 lists, to promote fishing and the impact it can have on women’s lives. The partnership includes print, digital, live events and custom content activations such as this article featuring serial founder Ty Haney that seamlessly incorporates the key research points.

In addition, an inspirational 60 second spot is running across Disney, Freeform and ESPN, and impactful print ads are captivating and grabbing readers’ attention in Vanity Fair, Vogue, Essence and Outside until September.

Harnessing the power of the awe-inspiring research, the campaign and media partnerships seek to ignite a powerful spark within women, inspiring them to embrace the captivating wonders of being on the water.