Catch Co. is a digital-first sportfishing brand platform with a mission to create amazing fishing brands, products and shopping experiences for the modern angler. It has quickly grown from offering its monthly tackle subscription called Mystery Tackle Box to selling its own fishing lures and rods, launching an e-commerce platform and producing an Amazon Prime video content series. They’ve also extended their retail availability to Dick’s Sporting Goods and Walmart.

SUCCESS STORY

How a fishing lifestyle brand lured new customers, NBA players and a new round of startup funding with well-timed media stories.

The opportunity

Catch Co. is uniquely positioned for growth within the fishing category because of its digital-first and omnichannel approach to attracting and keeping modern anglers engaged with its products, community and content. While the brand has been on a steady incline, they turned to Approach Marketing to generate even more opportunities through earned media by presenting Catch Co., Mystery Tackle Box, and founder Ross Gordon as authorities on the perfect social distance activity of fishing.

With a desire to expand beyond fishing trade media, Approach was charged with generating high profile national media coverage – and fast – to continue building product and brand credibility among consumers, potential retail partners and investors.

The approach

We developed a three-pronged media relations strategy with a variety of story angles and ideas to pique media interest. Through research, we identified that sales of fishing licenses soared 30 to 50% in many states as people sought new outdoor activities to keep them entertained and socially distant. We paired this intel with Catch Co.’s own findings about how overwhelming it can feel to take up a new sport and choose from the hundreds of bait options in the aisles. The brand’s products and experts could help demystify the process and get more people out on the water.

Media initiatives included:

• Recommending Mystery Tackle Box as a must-have gift in timing with Father’s Day, summer fishing season and Christmas to help new and experienced anglers catch more fish. This led to inclusion in gift guides by NBC, Today, MSN, twice in USA Today (which syndicated to 30 outlets nationwide), Popular Mechanics and Reviewed.com.

• Extending tips and gear recommendations to new anglers who may have taken up fishing in 2020, which resulted in detailed how-to’s in The Strategist (NY Magazine) and Reader’s Digest.

• Sharing Catch Co. and founder Ross Gordon’s start-up and funding stories to reinforce the company’s growth, success and product innovation, which led to profiles with Chicago Inno, FOX Business, Action & Ambition and Authority Magazine + Thrive Global. Over the course of the summer, many NBA players took to fishing in “The Bubble” to pass the time, with Catch Co. sending products for them to enjoy. This angle was also of top interest to business media.  

The impact

National media interest and coverage exceeded expectations and helped land Mystery Tackle Box on many of the most coveted gift guides.

By the end of the year, Catch Co. closed a new $6 million round of start-up funding, which built upon the product innovation and growth narrative the media had been sharing for months.