Let’s compare and contrast a pair of ads that want to persuade consumers to do basically the same thing. Nevertheless, one appeals to a narrow group of discriminating insiders, while the other appeals to a broader and more casually interested audience.

Outdoor industry leaders have invested a lot of money exploring how to recruit a new generation of hunters, anglers, and boaters in suburban America. One of the things they have discovered is that product specs matter to avid outdoors enthusiasts. Repeat customers. Knowledgeable customers. For example, a discriminating customer in the market for their second or third boat would find this literal and fact-heavy advertisement below to be quite helpful:

Source: Gilman Yachts, ad appeared in Chesapeake Bay Magazine.

But what these industry leaders have also discovered is that these specs and details just don’t mean much to less informed customers — novices, first-time buyers, newbies, call them what you want. Instead, those individuals respond more to a more abstract and emotional pitch, like the one in this advertisement:

Ad by Discover Boating, appeared in Outdoor Life magazine.

I have never done a presentation for the outdoor industry (although I’d be happy to, hint hint), but I think this second ad is just great. I’m struck how their ad uses the same words that I want you to use — and makes the same emotional connections that I want you to make.

If the boating, fishing, and fishing geeks can start to move past their fixation on horsepower, bullet caliber, line weight, etc… and appeal to a broader audience by evoking family experiences, surely we can move past our focus on watersheds, impervious surfaces, dissolved oxygen levels, etc… and do the same in our public-facing writing speaking.

Can’t we?

Can’t we?

If you want to explore what lead to this change of approach by the outdoor industry, check out the following reports from the research firm Responsive Management:

Factors Related to Hunting and Fishing Participation Among Today’s Youth

Factors Related to Boating Participation in the United States

Women’s, Hispanics’, and African-Americans’ Participation in and Attitudes Toward Boating and Fishing

Americans have clear feelings about the environment and their health, but not so clear feelings about the environment and their money. Plus, what people really need to hear from you to take action.

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