Bodies of water aren't the only place you'll find fishing and boating enthusiasts, now that the Recreational Boating & Fishing Foundation (RBFF) has its own online community, Fishington, at www.takemefishing.org. When the site launched recently, the promoters used postcards to lure in potential users.

"Since the postcards were going to a special, influential group of beta testers for the site, we wanted the postcards to feel special and invitation-like, which is why high-quality letterpress was used," says Mike Caguin, executive creative director at Colle+McVoy, the Minneapolis-based agency that worked on the campaign. "The online community and Web site are also considered a new, special destination. Therefore, we designed the postcards to mimic classic tourism postcards that celebrate travel destinations."

The team at Colle+McVoy designed a fishing-village scene for the cards. The front copy reads, "Take me fishing. Fishington, the fishing and boating capital of the Internet," and the back invites recipients to check out the Web site. The cards were sent to key stakeholders of the RBFF, such as state Department of Natural Resources officials, boating manufacturers, fishing gear manufacturers, etc.

The mailing definitely caught the attention of the groups the RBFF were angling for. "The client response was overwhelmingly positive and supportive," Caguin says. "Visitors to the site are helping to populate content on the site, since it allows users to add anything boating and fishing related."