ARLINGTON, VA – USA Rice launched a national advertising campaign focused on the promotion of U.S.-grown jasmine rice and educating consumers on the “U.S.-grown difference.”
The campaign launched in September 2025 and ran through mid-November and featured a diverse mix of retail efforts, digital and public transit paid media, and social media influencer outreach to ensure the maximum visibility and engagement opportunities with key audiences.
Public transit ads were focused on the cities of Los Angeles, Boston, and Washington D.C. These cities were selected as they are three of the top five U.S. markets for jasmine rice sales as well as centers of the Thai diaspora.
In Boston, railcar ads ran throughout the MBTA commuter and subway system that has daily weekday ridership of more than 590,000. In Los Angeles, banner ads were featured on 600 buses, or 38 percent of the fleet in the second largest bus system in the U.S. with monthly ridership around 19 million, and a variety of different ad types greeted the more than 2 million monthly domestic travelers at Washington’s Reagan National Airport.
Digital advertising further expanded the campaign’s reach through tactics such as geo-fenced ads in Boston and Washington that targeted consumers on their cellphones, tablets, and computers, showing them U.S. jasmine ads.
In retail spaces, “shelftalker” banner ads were strategically installed in the rice aisle in more than 1,000 stores across the country at 22 retail chains. All jasmine advertisements included QR codes or links that directed consumers to a custom USA Rice landing page highlighting participating jasmine brands, information on the U.S.-grown jasmine difference, and a library of jasmine rice recipes.
“Jasmine rice is one of the fastest growing varieties in the domestic market,” said Robert Trahan, chair of the USA Rice Domestic Promotion Committee. “The success of this campaign marks an important first step in exposing consumers to the variety of domestic jasmine brands available and growing understanding around preparation and usage. The responses we’ve seen reinforces the receptiveness of U.S. shoppers to U.S.-grown jasmine and highlights the opportunity to continue to promote the U.S.-grown difference to consumers and retailers alike.”
To date, the campaign has yielded more than 42 million consumer impressions, 1.3 million social engagements, and more than 5,000 unique site visitors on the jasmine landing page. Participating stores report a sales lift of 2-4.3% vs nonparticipating stores over the course of the campaign.
The sales data shows that the total incremental sales across Kroger, ABSCO, and Giant Eagle stores totaled more than $940,000 during the campaign. Of particular note, around seven percent of households that purchased rice during the campaign were new customers, representing households that had not purchased rice within the past year.
“This program was made possible by the USA Rice Council and guided by the USA Rice Domestic Promotion Committee,” said Cameron Jacobs, vice president of domestic promotion for USA Rice. “We appreciate their support as well as that of our retail partners and we look forward to building on this success for the benefit of the U.S. rice industry.”