ARLINGTON, VA – Just prior to the 2024 holiday season, consumers in central Pennsylvania were encouraged to include U.S.-grown rice on their family’s festive menus during a special segment broadcast during the Sunrise Chef portion of the news on WFMZ, covering the Lehigh Valley, Berks County, and Philadelphia. The
media segment, featuring a live cooking demonstration, reached 19K viewers and was part of the ongoing retail partnership between USA Rice and the mid-Atlantic grocery chain Weis Markets.
Weis Senior Regional Dietitian Lyndi Mies led the cooking segment. She prepared Sesame-Ginger Steamed Salmon with Brown Rice and shared the nutritional merits of brown, whole-grain, and enriched rice, along with U.S.-grown talking points. During the segment, the new Grown In The USA (GITUSA) badge and member brands were visually highlighted, and viewers were reminded that rice is a high-quality carbohydrate and great source of fiber that should be consumed as part of a healthy diet.
“All rice has nutritional value. It does vary a little bit based on the type,” Mies explained during the segment. “If you're using a white rice, it's going to be fortified with iron and other B vitamins so it's going to give you that long-lasting energy. But then the brown rice is going to have a little more fiber in addition to those other nutrients, so it's going to keep you fuller for longer.”
The holiday cooking segment was the finale of a successful retail promotion with Weis Markets that started last September and ran throughout National Rice Month (NRM) celebrating U.S.-grown rice and promoting the U.S.-grown difference.
The NRM promo kicked off with the cover feature for the Weis in-store magazine, Healthy Bites, which featured a two-page spread titled “U.S.-grown Rice: A Versatile Staple,” that included two rice recipes: Wild Rice Burgers with Tahini Special Sauce, and Sesame-Ginger Steamed Salmon with Brown Rice, the same recipe featured in the live cooking demo. More than 100K copies of the store magazine were printed and distributed at all 200 store locations and it was also available to Weis customers online.
The promo also included the sharing of two recipe videos featuring domestic rice across all Weis Market social channels to an audience of more than 170K consumers, and five store dietitian-led cooking classes, which were promoted in a monthly email to more than 2,500 consumers. These popular online classes walked attendees through USA Rice recipes, spotlighted the GITUSA badge, and promoted NRM.
New to this year’s slate of activities was in-store audio messaging where customers were able to hear two rotating prerecorded messages in honor of NRM focusing on the nutritional power of U.S.-grown rice and the industry’s commitment to sustainability. The recordings shared facts about U.S.-grown rice, as in this excerpt: “The U.S. rice industry is committed to sustainability and has made significant progress towards reducing their water use, energy use, and greenhouse gas emissions. To make sure your rice is homegrown, look for the ‘Grown in the USA’ label.”
“This retail activation really allowed us to hit every touchpoint possible with Weis shoppers to ensure they were aware of NRM and encourage them to buy domestic rice,” said Cameron Jacobs, USA Rice vice president of domestic promotion. “From print to social to in-store audio messaging and on-screen promotions, this partnership definitely made its mark with consumers in the mid-Atlantic.”