Supermarket RD Partnerships Make Millions of Impressions

ARLINGTON, VA – Earlier this year, USA Rice partnered with retail dietitians at Big Y and Redner’s supermarket chains to promote U.S.-grown rice across more than 134 grocery stores in Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania.  Big Y rice promotions were part of their Living Well Eating Smart® nutrition program and Redner’s promotions were part of their HealthCents program.  Both programs included sales promotions, in-store signage, social media posts, newsletter articles, in-store sampling, and more.

Big Y’s promotion launched with a weekly ad feature for a sale on U.S.-grown brown long grain rice that included “Think Rice” messaging, followed by an article in Big Y’s Living Well Eating Smart blog and newsletter highlighting the USA Rice recipe for Sweet Cherry Almond Breakfast Risotto.  More than thirty-six thousand copies of the newsletter were distributed in stores, and the article was also added to Big Y’s website and promoted throughout the month of March on social media.  The promotion garnered close to two million consumer impressions and resulted in an increase of 8 percent in sales of Big Y brown long grain rice over the two-week promotion period.

Redner’s promotion kicked off with a featured section in their weekly circular highlighting the USA Rice Arugula and Rice Salad recipe and “Think Rice” messaging, followed by a two-page article titled “The Power of Rice,” which highlighted the nutritional importance of rice and the importance of choosing U.S.-grown.  Redner’s also hosted twenty-five in-store sampling events at multiple locations, offering consumers the chance to try USA Rice’s Tropical Wild Rice Medley Salad.  More than one thousand consumers took part in the taste test and took home recipe cards and USA Rice promotional materials.  Overall, the Redner’s promotion yielded more than one million consumer impressions and resulted in a 39 percent increase in unit sales of white long grain, white medium grain, white parboiled, and brown long grain throughout the promotion period.

“These numbers are impressive,” said Cameron Jacobs, USA Rice domestic promotion manager.  “These partnerships garnered more than three million consumer impressions across multiple states and regions, not to mention the double digit increases in sales.  These promotions that feature retail dietitians are a proven formula allowing USA Rice to have a presence on the ground level with consumers, getting our message out there and making connections, and helping increase sales of U.S.-grown rice.”