The world of outdoors communication has changed. More people are going to the web for hunting and conservation information. Matt Drury, General Manager for Drury Outdoors and son of Terry Drury, shares how the company has embraced the new ways of communicating to the outdoors consumer.
Matt Drury
Mark, Terry, Taylor and I plan and develop new content for our web presence all year long. Taylor and I host the TV shows that we develop for our social media platforms. We collectively decided that it made more sense to have Taylor and I host the shows made strictly for digital media, because Mark and Terry are known more for the video and TV side of the business. With this new age of our business, we wanted to pass the torch to the next generation internally.
Taylor and I will also host the new “Critical Mass” TV show we are producing for Mossy Oak airing on the Outdoor Channel during the third and fourth quarters of the year. “Critical Mass” is a reality-based TV show. We take 12 hunters from all over the United States, and they’ll use their video cameras to chronicle their hunts during the season.
Each episode of “Critical Mass” has a challenger and a defender, and they both have one episode to show two of their hunts. Then the cast picks one contestant from that head-to-head battle to move on to the next week’s show as a defender. At the end of the 13 week series, we’ll have one defender who’s made it through the highest number of shows. The winner will take home a Mossy Oak Edition Can-Am Defender and a year’s worth of gas for reaching "Critical Mass."
Mossy Oak’s “Critical Mass” will cover hot issues that everyone is debating on social media. We try to make each of these debates positive for hunting because there are different ways to approach the sport. Hunters prepare and pursue game in different ways, and as long as the actions are within the bounds of hunting laws, hunting can be just as individual as the hunter.
We’re trying to elevate our sport, regardless of the varied opinions, and we’re attempting to introduce new people to hunting. This show tends toward a younger audience than our TV shows and videos do. The hunters on Mossy Oak’s “Critical Mass” are younger for the most part. We’ll have hunters primarily in the 21-35-year-old demographic, and we’ll be showcasing several women hunters as well as men hunters. We’re trying to be very inclusive and bring new people into the sport of hunting and create content that will be entertaining.
I’ve been working fulltime for Drury Outdoors for 14 years. In the beginning, I was a video editor. Then I became the Brand Manager. Four or five years later, I became the General Manager, and I've been taking on more duties and responsibilities. I've taken over many of the responsibilities that Mark and Terry once did to allow them to do what they do best, and that’s being in the outdoors and developing new content for our viewers at home to enjoy!
For the past four or five years, Taylor and I have taken on more responsibility in front of the camera, too. The four of us realize that for the sake of our company’s growth, Taylor and I have to continue and take on a more active role in everything we do. We believe this to be a strategic way to make sure that Drury Outdoors continues for at least another 30 years. Mark and Terry have many more years of hunting and producing now and into the future. But as a company, we also have to be realistic and plan for what will happen if and when they retire.
