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Participation in shooting sports has skyrocketed in recent years.
We sat down with leadership from Benelli USA, Federal, and IHEA-USA as well as ExpertVoice shooting experts for an important discussion on how brands can harness that participation. The conversation also covered conservation and education efforts along with how brands can foster the continued growth of the sport. The full webinar is available on-demand but we thought we’d break it down into some key takeaways.
Tom DeBolt
General Manager of Benelli USA
Jason Vanderbrink
President of CCI, Federal, Hevi-Shot, Remington, Speer Ammo
Alex Baer
Executive Director of IHEA-USA
Kaitlin Lospinoso
Expert Collective Member — Hunt/Fish
Jack Borcherding
ExpertVoice Video Crew Member
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Shooting Sports
A match made on the range
ExpertVoice helps consumers make better buying decisions by
harnessing advocacy from real-world experts.
We connect brands in specialty categories like shooting sports with vetted experts from whom they can gather authentic product feedback and brand insights. In turn, experts increase their brand and product knowledge by completing educational lessons and gaining exclusive access to the latest gear.
Back at the range, in the field, or on social media, those experts are equipped to more confidently give product recommendations to those seeking buying advice. The ultimate goal is for more people to enjoy the outdoors more often while using gear they trust.
Conservation: the lifeblood of shooting sports
In 1937, Congress enacted the Pittman-Robertson as a way to provide conservation funding to states via an 11% excise tax on firearms, munitions, and archery equipment. Since its creation, it’s helped bring many species back from the brink of extinction including white-tailed deer, wood ducks, and wild turkeys.
For hunting-oriented brands like Benelli USA and Federal, Pittman-Robertson and other conservation programs are the lifeblood of their business. Both companies have extensive internal efforts. They also use ExpertVoice as a way to reward members of the agencies doing important conservation work.
Another significant way they contribute to
conservation is simply by selling their products.
The more they sell, the more excise taxes go towards ensuring future generations have access to hunting lands with healthy wildlife populations occupying them. ExpertVoice helps shooting sports brands drive their full-price sales through experts advocating for their products. And those full-price sales make those excise taxes go much further. Our experts are also often involved in grassroots conservation efforts of their own or, in the case of Kaitlin, studying to make conservation their career.
Educating millions of new gun owners
As we already noted, participation in shooting sports has skyrocketed in recent years. In 2020 alone, the National Shooting Sports Foundation reported that nearly 5 million people in America became first-time firearm owners. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, that number is around 10–12 million.
With so many new gun owners, hunters, and sport shooters, education is critical. But how do you properly educate people about something that usually requires in-person instruction in the midst of a global pandemic? As with many other aspects of life, hunter education went virtual. The International Hunter Education Association quickly sprang into action to help states move their programs online. Today, every state now has virtual options to ensure that hunter education is accessible to anyone who wants to take it.
But what about those budding hunters who still want to learn the old-fashioned way? IHEA is also working on new programs aimed at providing mentorship to new hunters through its existing pool of over 50,000 volunteer instructors.
Growing participation by reaching new audiences
Naturally, as more people have become gun owners, the demographics of gun ownership have shifted. So too has the demographics of people taking hunter education courses. With this shift, the online option offers traditionally underrepresented groups a more comfortable space in which to learn.
Growth in shooting sports participation during the pandemic has been noticeably strong. But that growth can only sustain itself for so long. To ensure it continues, brands like Federal are pivoting their marketing efforts to welcome the changing demographics and engage those new sport shooters.