“It was an exciting and fun event where Idaho potatoes played a major role and received some great exposure — even more than Audi, which was the main sponsor of the event,” said Higham, who added that the event received 8.5 billion impressions from 440 articles resulting in $785 million in media value.

Another success involved the launch of a potato-flavored lipstick for a Valentine’s Day promotion. Similar to the French fry-inspired Frites by Idaho perfume that hit the scene for Valentine’s Day in 2022, this year’s Kiss of French lipstick was an immediate hit.

Described in IPC literature as “a decadent blend of flavor and desire made from real Idaho potatoes,” Higham said the item sold out in 48 hours.

Other programs and sponsorships that will continue are the IPC’s participation in the South Beach Food & Wine Festival; the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl college football game; and the Idaho Potato Drop on New Years Eve.

At the South Beach Food & Wine Festival, IPC runs a side dish challenge in conjunction with Burger Bash, which is hosted by Rachel Ray.

At this year’s event, Higham said 16 chefs competed in the challenge and history was made, as La Bira took top honors in both the Idaho Potato Best Side Dish Award and Mike’s Amazing People’s Choice Award.

“This event was extremely popular for Idaho potatoes, as the 35 media mentions generated more than 225,000 impressions across food, lifestyle and event outlets,” said Higham.

Regarding the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl sponsorship, Higham admitted it was a program that was under review to assess whether or not to continue, but in the end the exposure was too great to pass up.

“It’s basically a two-and-a-half hour infomercial for Idaho potatoes” that culminates in a bucket of French fries being dumped on the winning coach’s head, said Higham, who added that the 2024 game went into double-overtime and resulted in around 205 million impressions for Idaho potatoes.

Still, he said, the IPC is considering going in a different direction, due to the proposed realignment in college football.

A slightly higher number of impressions — 238 million — was achieved with the New Year’s Eve Idaho Potato Drop, another popular IPC-sponsored event that takes place each year in downtown Boise.

One of the state-related promotions supported by IPC is the new license plate design that is now available for drivers. The plate, which has white lettering on a black background, features the phrase World Famous Potatoes, has been extremely well received in the short time it has been available to the public.

“It promotes both the state and the Idaho potato industry,” making it a win-win proposition, according to Higham, who credited Sam Eaton, the IPC’s vice president of legal and government affairs, for shepherding it through the state legislature.

Commercial success

The Idaho Potato Commission is one of the few commodity groups that runs television commercials, and it has established a track record of success.

The first campaign that launched a decade ago featured Idaho potato grower Mark Coombs and his bloodhound as they searched in vain for the Big Idaho Potato Truck. The momentum of this humorous campaign set the stage for success of future spots, including last year’s knock-offs theme that had shady street vendors pushing counterfeit Idaho potatoes.

Higham teased the next campaign, which plays on the online dating culture and preferences that result in a match.

“Our target is adults 25-54 that are light and medium potato buyers,” said Higham. “We try to reach them where they are using media, running the spots on both cable and broadcast television, as well as digital and streaming platforms. The ads are fun and engaging, and they get people talking, which is what you want from an ad.”

Big Idaho Potato Truck rolls on

Now wrapping up its 13th nationwide tour, the Idaho Potato Truck continues to turn heads and reap rewards for the state’s potato industry.

For the period of February-December 2025, the truck traveled to 31 states and participated in 57 events, traversing more than 31,000 miles along the way. During this time, the truck made an appearance at 25 retail events and 12 foodservice events — benefiting 18 local charities.

One of the memorable appearances this year, according to Higham, was a stop at Waltonwood Carriage Park in Canton, MI, to help celebrate the 114th birthday of Bonita Gibson, who was raised on a potato farm in Idaho and credits her longevity to regularly eating Idaho potatoes.

Higham said the IPC provided ample swag and boxes of potatoes to residents and staff ahead of the visit, which received 209 media placements and more than 87 million views online.

He said this was exactly the type of earned media, which is generated organically when news outlets cover these kinds of engaging events, that IPC has been able to capitalize on by virtue of its creative campaigns.

Higham credited Evans Hardy + Young, the IPC’s Santa Barbara, CA-based advertising agency, as well as Boise-based foerstel+piper+martin, which runs the Big Idaho Potato Truck tour, for their work in promoting the Idaho Potato brand in innovative ways.

Other earned media opportunities occurred throughout the year, including mentions of the Idaho Potato brand on various talk shows and cooking programs. Higham mentioned one in particular, when influencer Danielle Kartes, appearing on the Kelly Clarkson show, broke show protocol against promoting individual brands by giving a big shout-out to Idaho Potatoes.

“We love Danielle,” Higham said with a chuckle.

In-house activities

While IPC promotions reach far and wide around the globe, much of the heavy lifting for brand awareness is done in house via website and social media as well as through the annual Potato Lovers Month retail display contest and various trade engagements.

Higham said the IPC website continues to perform on a very high level, adding that “since migrating the IPC website and prioritizing top-ranked search content, we have seen clear and positive impact.”

From February 1 through August, the site has had more than 1.1 million page views, with much of the traffic the result of the Dr. Potato, a forum where people can pose Idaho potato-related questions and receive expert advice in return.

“Dr. Potato is still our top source for web traffic,” said Higham, who disclosed that the subsite has drawn more than 422,000 users resulting in over 536,000 page views. He added that IPC is utilizing artificial intelligence for the Dr. Potato feature with the goal of streamlining engagement with users.

The annual Potato Lovers Month retail display contest also was a strong program for IPC this year, said Higham, who reported a 22 percent increase in entries this year.

Staff and board recognition

At the Sun Valley convention, the IPC names a new chairman of the board and recognizes the contributions of members who have completed their service on the board.

At this year’s convention, Daren Bitter was elevated to the position of chairman, taking over from Mark Darrington. In his last official role as chairman, Darrington thanked outgoing board members Paul Saito of McCain Foods and Bryan Wada of Wada Farms for their dedicated service.

Higham recognized the hard work of the Idaho Potato Commission field teams.

The retail team is headed by Vice President Ross Johnson and includes Matt Zapczynski (Northeast and Midwest), Mark Daniels (Southeast and Central) and Patrick Mills (West).

On the foodservice side, Higham said Vice President Alan Kahn retired in February, and Stanley Trout now oversees that division while also serving as senior program director for the Southeast. He is joined by Matt Brigotti (Northeast and Midwest) and Armand Lobato (West).