Building the world of Matcha in the USA
THE CHALLENGE
Matcha, miso, koji, natto, sake. Centuries of craft. Profound flavor. And for most American home cooks, completely intimidating.
Japanese ingredients weren't unknown in the US. Matcha had been on coffee shop menus for years. Miso showed up in soup. But showing up isn't the same as belonging. These ingredients lived on the edge of the American kitchen, interesting enough to order at a restaurant, not quite familiar enough to buy at the grocery store and actually use.
JFOODO wanted to change that. Not by simplifying the tradition or softening what makes these ingredients special, but by making them genuinely accessible. The challenge was education without being a lecture, inspiration without being aspirational in a way that pushes people away. And underneath all of it, a harder question: how do you earn the attention of food-curious Americans when they already have more recipes, more content, and more culinary rabbit holes than they'll ever get through?
Buying ad space wasn't the answer. We needed to be somewhere people were already looking.
THE WORK
We built Umami Match around a single honest idea: Japanese ingredients aren't substitutes or novelties. They're the thing you didn't know your cooking was missing. Matcha isn't just green tea. Miso isn't just seasoning. These are transformative ingredients that change the flavor of everything around them. Find your match, and your cooking shifts.
That idea drove everything.
Two original content series. We produced episodic video content with chefs, food creators, and cultural voices. One series went deep with culinary professionals showing how Japanese ingredients actually live in a working kitchen. The other went wide, with creators and influencers exploring the same ingredients through their own cooking and routines. Both were built to inspire, not instruct. Show people what becomes possible. Let them find their own way in.
A library of social content. Fifteen-plus assets, built for how people actually consume food content on Instagram, YouTube, and Pinterest. Recipe videos. Ingredient portraits. Quick technique demos. Shoppable links. All of it shot with the visual texture and care that Japanese food culture deserves.
An earned media strategy that actually worked. This is the part we're most proud of. Rather than buying placements, we gave food editors something worth publishing. Bon Appétit ran a feature contextualizing Japanese ingredients within contemporary American cooking. Serious Eats developed and tested recipes with their usual rigor. Food & Wine went deep on sourcing and craft. Eater framed the shift as a genuine cultural trend. Thrillist made it fun. The Kitchn made it approachable for home cooks who'd never opened a bag of koji in their lives.
Six major publications. All editorial. All earned.
THE RESULT
The campaign moved people from curious to convinced.
Key outcomes:
95.3% purchase intent among audiences who engaged with the campaign
20% increase in purchase likelihood after contact with the content
6+ major editorial placements across top-tier American food media
High video completion rates and strong save/share behavior across social platforms
Evergreen editorial content continuing to drive discovery long after the campaign wrapped
The editorial strategy was the force multiplier. Every placement reinforced the others. Japanese ingredients started appearing everywhere food-curious Americans were already looking, not as an interruption but as part of the conversation they were already having.
Matcha moved from coffee shop order to home kitchen staple. Miso expanded from soup into marinades, dressings, baking. Koji became something home fermenters were actively seeking out. The campaign didn't just shift purchase intent. It shifted how people understood what was possible in their own kitchens.
Japanese ingredients didn't need to be Americanized. They needed to be understood. Once they were, they became irresistible.
