TORONTO, CANADA – USA Rice recently partnered with BuzzFeed Tasty in Canada as part of its consumer promotion program. BuzzFeed’s food and recipe channel, Tasty, generates six million users each month in Canada with 91 percent of users saying the platform has introduced them to new recipes and cuisines. With their video-first approach, wide reach, and engaging content style, BuzzFeed Tasty was an obvious choice for getting more Canadians to “Think Rice” in their everyday meals.
Tapping into the multiculturalism of Canada and the global popularity of rice, BuzzFeed’s content focused on three recipes inspired by dishes from Egypt, India, and Japan that are quick and simple to recreate. Each video is 15 seconds long, sharing a simple fact about rice and why it’s a staple ingredient for all households.
The content was extremely popular with BuzzFeed’s audience, with the recipe videos overdelivering on all key performance indicators. The videos went live on Meta (Facebook and Instagram) and Snapchat, linking back to the three recipes hosted on the Canadian USA Rice website. Overall, the videos delivered 2.7M impressions, 571K views, and more than 32K clicks to the recipe pages.
The most successful recipes were the Quick Chicken Biryani Bowl for capturing and retaining audience attention in the video, and the Egyptian Rice Bowl with Red Lentil Ragu for driving viewers to the USA Rice website.
“Partnering with popular digital media outlets like BuzzFeed is an effective way to raise awareness and drive purchase consideration with younger audiences,” said Asiha Grigsby, USA Rice senior director of international promotion. “Working with BuzzFeed has allowed us to tap into the Gen Z market especially, demonstrating why rice is a staple in cultures around the world and in households across Canada. Creating globally inspired dishes demonstrated the relevance of U.S.-grown rice across the diverse demographics within Canada.”
The success of the campaign created a large spike in website traffic for USA Rice. Data shows that 55.1 percent of traffic to the Canadian USA Rice website came from BuzzFeed Tasty during June and July, as well as 35K page views.
“The partnership created the biggest spike in traffic ever seen on the website, showing how digital media partnerships are influential in driving online engagement and further action, such as accessing recipes, encouraging audiences to ‘Think Rice’ in the grocery aisle and the kitchen,” Grigsby said.