Ecuador's top rice brand hides 20 painted prize grains — 'Rice of Glory' wins Gran Ojo

Ecuadorians eat about 50 kg of rice per person a year, yet 20+ brands sell the same white grain; market leader Arroz Super Extra needed shoppers to care about the product instead of just price.

Hide 20 hand-painted prize grains (cruises, phones, Galapagos trips) inside opaque rice bags — a Willy Wonka golden-ticket hunt for a commodity Ecuadorians buy weekly.

Sri Lankan micro-artist Dayananda hand-painted 20 grains with non-toxic vegetable ink; the grains were hidden in 300,000+ redesigned opaque black packages sold through the country's largest supermarket chains for about three months, backed by TV vignettes on how far people go for a grain of rice, billboards, and influencers warning people not to cook a winning grain.

During the three-month promotion Super Extra went from ~600,000 to 1 million cases sold, outselling rivals by 500,000+ cases; it won El Ojo 2024's Gran Ojo Directo and Best Idea of Ecuador, plus Gold Brand Experience & Activation and Bronze Direct at Cannes Lions 2024.

Ecuadorians eat about 50 kilos of rice per person a year, and more than 20 brands fight for the same shelf space selling the same white grain. Arroz Super Extra, the country's #1 rice brand, had no way to differentiate on the product itself — so Grey's agencies in Ecuador, Argentina and Brazil turned the package into a lottery.

"Rice of Glory" hid 20 hand-painted winning grains inside 300,000+ redesigned opaque black bags. Sri Lankan micro-artist Dayananda painted each grain by hand with non-toxic vegetable ink, depicting prizes from cruises and airline tickets to smartphones, laptops, TVs and trips to the Galapagos. The campaign treated the hunt as comedy: TV vignettes showed how far people would go for a grain of rice, and influencers warned audiences not to accidentally cook a winning grain into their sushi or fried rice.

The promotion ran nationwide for about three months in the largest supermarket chains. Super Extra sold through the participating packages, lifted its classic package sales, and went from roughly 600,000 to 1 million cases sold in the period, outselling competitors by more than 500,000 cases.

It competed on experience instead of price in a commodity category where every brand's product is identical.

The prize was inside the product itself, forcing shoppers to spend time with the brand and building anticipation into an everyday purchase.

Opaque packaging created genuine suspense — buyers could not see whether they held a winning grain until they cooked it.

The humor and influencer layer turned a simple promotion into shareable content, amplifying the hunt far beyond the store.

A commodity brand can beat price competition by putting a rare, physical prize inside the product itself — making the package the media and the hunt the campaign.

Rice of Glory consolidated Super Extra's position as Ecuador's #1 rice brand and became one of the most decorated Latin American campaigns of 2024: Gran Ojo Directo and Best Idea of Ecuador at El Ojo de Iberoamérica, Gold in Brand Experience & Activation and Bronze in Direct at Cannes Lions 2024, and a Silver at the London International Awards. The following year the work was again recognized at Cannes with a Bronze, and the case is widely cited as a template for turning a staple commodity into a moment.