Giant and Stop & Shop SRDs Get Social

ARLINGTON, VA -- USA Rice’s partnership with supermarket dietitians (SRDs) continues to pay off in big ways.  SRDs in Giant and Stop & Shop supermarkets throughout the East Coast and New England celebrated National Rice Month by promoting U.S.-grown rice to their customers using social media-based communications.

East Coast chain Giant used Twitter to disseminate rice recipes and encouraged followers to shop for U.S.-grown rice to complete their dishes.  The store also started a Pinterest board passing along recipes and cooking tips and then promoted this page through their social media channels.  Together the social media efforts of Giant reached more than 250,000 consumers, and rice was promoted as the “Nutritionist Featured Item” in 12 stores.  SRDs used the NRM logo and recipe cards as part of the promotion.

Sister company, Stop & Shop, also used social media to promote the benefits of rice by tweeting and creating a Pinterest board for their customers reaching more than 300,000 followers, and ran placements in the “Dietitian’s Corner” of their weekly circular available in both print and digital versions.  The digital version of the publication receives more than 130,000 unique visitors per month.

“We know that dietitians use social media as a primary method of communication with their clients and store customers and these programs were designed to leverage those strong relationships,” said Katie Maher, USA Rice director of domestic promotion programs.  “Social media, in combination with in-store and web-based materials, had a huge impact on increasing awareness of U.S.-grown rice during National Rice Month.”