(11/15/19)

Presentation by Kevin Orthman, Professional Outdoor Media Association
Summary and photo by Adam Baylor, Oregon Dept. of Fish & Wildlife

Kevin Orthman, CEO of the Professional Outdoor Media Association provided key insights into the hunting and fishing industry during his presentation titled, “A Brief Outlook on Outdoor Media,” at ACI 2019.
A video of Orthman’s presentation is available on Facebook.

Kevin Orthman of POMA and Restless Native podcaster speaks to ACI 2019 attendees.

POMA, according to its website, “is a group of individual communicators and corporate partners who believe in, defend, support and promote the heritage of hunting, fishing, shooting and traditional outdoor sports through writing, photography and other means.”

Its membership includes hundreds of outdoor businesses, more than 400 storytellers, media people, videographers and editors. “I get to see the good, the bad and ugly,” as Orthman put it, referring to the outdoor industry. For communication professionals working for state fish and wildlife agencies, his in-depth, outdoor media knowledge was a missing link at ACI.

Here are some key takeaways from Orthman’s talk:

Perceptions – Orthman started the morning presentation with a bit of humor from the 1955 “Field & Scream,” an MGM cartoon.

Demographics – “Make it easy, like Amazon,” Kevin explained about reaching people in the 18-to-24-year-old range through mobile devices. “It’s a button-mashing generation,” he continued. The Millennials and Gen Z generations also tend to not answer email. But a good way to communicate is through a text-messaging system. “The response rate is amazing and dirt cheap too,” he added.

Shift to Visual Media – Utilize Short Form, High-Impact Visuals, Video, Focus on Process and Personality, How-to, Encompass Adventure Not Just Outcome.

• Short Form – Orthman posited the concept of one-second ads for attendees to consider. How can you tell a story in one second, 10 seconds? How can you engage an audience and make them want to come outside? Video is one of biggest ways to do so.
• Focus on Personality – “I’ve never worked with a state agency before … you’re a brand and doing some cool things,” Orthman counselled. Consider dailies (raw, unedited footage shot during the making of a video).
• “How-to” Videos – This type of media is the highest-viewed content on the web. Orthman suggested to “talk about what’s going on behind the scenes on a daily basis,” and he gave a good example of someone doing it right. Salt Strong creates simple how-to videos such as how to tie knots. The link to fish and wildlife agencies: “We have a ton of how-tos.”
• Encompass Adventure Not Just Outcome – “Stop focusing on the kill shot. It’s about where we’re going. Tell us where we’re going. Seventy percent of Instagram searches are for travel and how we are getting there,” said Orthman.

Podcast – “I don’t know what the bandwidth of your department is … [it’s] cheap to do, everyone can do it.” Orthamn’s podcast, Restless Natives, can be found here: www.everrestless.com.

Lastly, Orthman concluded his thought-provoking snapshot of the hunting and fishing industry with a few nuggets regarding The Next Frontier.

• Video Games (example – Red Dead Redemption),
• Twitch Streaming (www.twitch.tv),
• Premium Coffee Table Magazines (example – META),
• Mossy Oak Go app (go.mossyoak.com/).