JACKSON – Marketing Director Jeremy Bass spoke before the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks Wednesday morning. Mississippians may have noticed an increase in content production by the agency as Bass works to improve the outreach. 

The transition to a new era of marketing and media for MDWFP really began last year when the agency unveiled a new logo for Mississippi State Parks. Bass said the guiding principles for the agency’s marketing are “advocacy, awareness, engagement and education.” 

Employees in the Marketing and Media department take those four principles into consideration when working on projects. Each program the agency undertakes has at least one main focus but they will still try to touch the other three. 

Bass told the commission they will soon launch a campaign for blaze pink awareness. Mississippi’s State Legislature passed a bill into law this past year to allow hunters to wear blaze pink along with blaze orange for hunter safety. 

The marketing and media team worked on a new brand book which will be produced soon. He said a year and a half ago, MDWFP leadership approached him with some objectives. Research found the people of Mississippi knew what MDWFP was and the name but not what the agency did, the why and the importance of the agency’s mission. 

“Awareness as a whole is something we wanted to focus on. Our brand book shares our history and why we do what we do. This book allows the agency to see that and communicate it with others,” Bass said. “It will guide our campaigns and programs that align with our mission and will be distributed to others. We have already started using it to align brand strategy.”

One aspect of the brand book is bringing consistent visuals. Anyone who has visited the MDWFP website in the past month may have noticed a few things, consistency in the design and the fact it is a completely new website. 

Bass told the commission the website receives 1.2 million visitors annually. One reason the website was changed was to help visitors find information easily and make an impression on people. 

He said since the new website has gone up the number of visitors have gone up 11 percent. Social media platforms such as X, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube have seen a 200 percent increase in reach to 9 million people. Bass said on average the agency publishes 1,000 posts a year. Each social media platform saw growth in followers or subscribers with YouTube leading the way with a 50.6 percent growth. 

MDWFP’s posts are usually educational and authoritative while the Mississippi State Parks and Museum of Natural Science platforms are targeted towards engagement. Bass said they have seen growth across platforms over the past year which is “a testament to our team.”

In public relations, MDWFP averages about 100 press releases every year. Bass said they have tracked the agency’s mentions in online publications. On average a state wildlife agency has 1,000 mentions and the United States Fish and Wildlife Service has around 5,000. 

“Mentions in the news are fluid. It just depends on what is happening,” Bass said. “Last year we had 5,046 mentions.”

One catalyst to the agency’s growth in reach has been through the launch of a new podcast hosted by Matt Wyatt on the Mississippi Outdoors YouTube channel and Spotify. Bass said the YouTube channel’s subscribers grew 50 percent thanks to the podcast. He added the podcast brought in 240,000 views across different episodes and the number grows each day. The podcast was planned for one podcast episode a week over a 52 week season. 

“We are getting great feedback. It is growing our awareness and that was our overall goal,” Bass said. 

Impressions on YouTube total 5.8 million and spikes could be seen with specific podcast episodes bringing in traffic. 

Mississippi Outdoors also produces a TV show which launched its 35th season last week. The show can also be watched on YouTube. 

Bass said they also revamped the agency’s magazine. Nearly 12,000 subscribers to the magazine will see a new design and format before the end of the year.