Rice Advertising Takes Top Readership Awards

2005 Ad Ranked Number One!

ARLINGTON, VA, December 22, 2005 — The USA Rice Federation’s foodservice advertising campaign, “Rice…The Perfect Fit For Your Menu,” has won the top readership award for an ad placed in Chain Leader magazine. The campaign also achieved a sixth place ranking, based on its research score, in Food Management magazine.

“This type of success with USA Rice Federation advertising material is crucial to expanding the market for U.S. rice consumption,” said USA Rice Domestic Promotion Committee Chairman Charles Trahan. “After all, let’s not forget that our key market is right here at home.

“Congratulations to USA Rice for this success,” USA Rice Council Chairman John King said. “The resources put into this effort are clearly well spent.” The USA Rice Council helped fund this USA Rice domestic promotion program.

Chain Leader and Food Management magazines are the leading publications reaching our target audiences,” said Anne Banville, USA Rice VP for domestic promotion

The ad campaign, managed by the USA Rice Federation, was designed and executed by Gordon Hanrahan, Inc., a Chicago-based public relations agency. “Rice broke through the clutter of all the other advertisements in the publication to deliver our key message points — especially that rice fits in restaurant and institutional operations, on menus, and with their patrons,” said Michael Gordon, the company’s president. “In fact, rice scored better than many of the biggest-spending, high-profile brands advertising to the industry.” USA Rice outscored Lamb Weston and J. R.Simplot (two of the largest potato advertisers and marketers), Kellogg, Pepsi-Cola, Tabasco, Hobart, Land O’Lakes, Hershey’s, National Dairy Association, and many others, he said.

Harvey Research, Inc., which performed the research for the award, is an independent research company that conducts over 25,000 face-to-face interviews and mails over 200,000 questionnaires worldwide. It is a leader in marketing communications research.

According to Gordon, the rice ad ranked number one for the percentage of readers who recall reading the ad. The ad scored above the publication average ranking by 243 percent. Far more people recall the rice ad and the points it made than any other advertisement in the magazine. The ad’s utility as a pullout recipe brochure was also a key issue.

A key attribute of reading recall, according to Harvey Communications, is the memory of a sufficient amount of the advertisement to comprehend the principal subject discussed and to identify the advertiser. Usefulness of the ad copy to the reader is also a factor of recall reading, according to Harvey Research.

“The research, conducted by Harvey Research, Inc., continues to validate our strategy for getting noticed among all competing advertising,” Trahan said. “This accomplishment confirms that our message points are relevant and understood. It confirms our new recipe ideas are on-trend and intriguing, and that our breakthrough creative messaging works.” Trahan noted that this is the 18th consecutive year that its foodservice advertising has been recognized for excellence.

Among the comments for the ad campaign:

· “The Greek Rice sounds wonderful. I will try that. I opened it to find out what it was. I am glad I did. Thanks.” — Full service fine dining executive chef

· “This makes me want to use rice in recipes and cook something.” — Quick service food operation president

· “The recipes look very appetizing. They’re different than what you normally see. Nice ad. It lays out how to make good use of the product.” — Full service family dining purchasing director

· “This gives rice a more universal look. It is healthier. It goes with lots of spices and is pretty fool proof. This is a good guide and [a] textbook way of doing things.” — Food service management company facilities manager.

View the video news release at: http://www.tagteamglobal.net/usar/VNR/

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CONTACT: David Coia, (703) 236-1444, dcoia@usarice.com

USA Rice Federation is the national advocate for all segments of the rice industry, conducting activities to influence government programs, developing and initiating programs to increase worldwide demand for U.S. rice, and providing other services to increase profitability for all industry segments.