When USA Rice launched its national jasmine rice advertising campaign last September, the goal was straightforward: put U.S.-grown jasmine in front of American consumers and remind them that high-quality, aromatic rice is grown right here at home. Now that this initial campaign has wrapped, the results are in, and they make a compelling case for why this kind of promotion is one of the best investments the industry can make with your hard-earned check off dollars.
The campaign ran from September through mid-November 2025, and it was built for maximum reach with paid advertising, social media activations, in-store promotion, and a landing webpage that called out all domestic jasmine brands.
Our paid ads centered on Los Angeles, Boston, and Washington, D.C. – three of the top five U.S. markets for jasmine rice sales, centers of the Thai diaspora, and affordable media markets.
In Boston, railcar ads ran throughout the subway system serving more than 590,000 daily riders. In Los Angeles, banner ads appeared on 600 buses – nearly 40 percent of the entire fleet of the second largest bus system in the U.S. In our nation’s capital, a variety of digital ads greeted the more than 2 million monthly travelers passing through Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in both the budget terminal and the business-traveler terminal and at baggage claim.
In the retail space, we used geo-fencing technology to reach consumers on their phones and tablets in and around supermarkets, while corresponding shelf-talkers were strategically placed in the rice aisle at more than 1,000 stores across 22 retail chains, including Kroger, Safeway, Albertsons, and Hy-Vee.
The QR codes, links, and the social media activations all brought consumers to our U.S. jasmine webpage that, in addition to showcasing brands, offered recipes, tips, and messaging about “the U.S.-grown difference.”
I’m happy to report that the campaign generated more than 42 million consumer impressions, 1.3 million social media engagements, and more than 5,000 unique visitors to the campaign webpage.
But the metric that probably matters most to you is ROI; what happened at the register? Stores participating in the campaign reported a sales lift of 2 to 4.3 percent compared to non-participating stores, and total incremental sales across Kroger, ABSCO, and Giant Eagle locations exceeded $940,000 during the campaign period.
That’s not abstract market-building – that’s product moving off shelves, and demand signals flowing back through the supply chain from retailer, to miller, to you who grow this crop.
Perhaps equally significant for the long-term health of the industry is this finding: around seven percent of households that made a rice purchase during the campaign had not purchased rice in the previous 52 weeks! Additionally, the participating U.S. brands saw a total sales lift of 6 to 9 percent. That shows the potential for overall category growth – not just aromatics. And when you pair that with the fact that our domestic jasmine quality has never been better – rivaling imports – the stage is set for us to convert customers to U.S.-grown, further expanding your reach.
What I hope you take away from this is that promotion works! The investments we make, with the support of the USA Rice Council, in campaigns like this one creates real, measurable demand for the crop you grow. Forty-two million impressions don’t happen by accident, nor does a measurable sales lift and new customers. That’s your industry working for you – and the jasmine campaign shows exactly what coordinated, well-executed promotion can deliver. ∆
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