Expo West Marketing Playbook: Proven Strategies for Brand Success

Expo West (March 4-7, 2025), happening every year in Anaheim, is the premier trade show promoting the latest developments in the natural and organic products market. It draws thousands of exhibitors, from Clif Bar to Fage, from Liquid Death to Poppi, and everything in between, plus buyers from across the globe, all trying to promote or find the next big thing in CPG (consumer packaged goods). 

Learn how to promote your brand at Expo West by using our proven marketing strategies and expert tips. Let’s get started with the best Expo West Anaheim marketing tips around!

What Is Expo West And Why Show There

Natural Products Expo West, or just Expo West to regulars, is one of the biggest trade shows for organic and natural foods, beverages, supplements, and cosmetic products. It’s an annual event held at the Anaheim Convention Center in California and organized by New Hope Network.

The first show, held in 1981, was a direct result of the rising trend of organic farming in the US. What started as a modest gathering of natural product retailers and manufacturers is now one of the world's largest exhibitions for natural and organic CPG. It even has an offshoot event, Newtopia Now, which takes place in Colorado.

The 2024 Expo West attracted over 65,000 international attendees and over 3,300 exhibitors. With the 2025 show projected to be even bigger and better, it’s more important for your brand to know how to stand out at Expo West and take full advantage of the following:

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• Networking Opportunities: Expo West is a networking hub that connects brands with retailers, distributors, manufacturers, and industry influencers. These relationships can open many industry doors in the future.
• ‍Market Visibility: Attending the event increases your visibility among targeted health-conscious consumers and industry professionals. It’s the perfect place to showcase your products to those who matter most.‍
• Trend Spotting: By interacting with other vendors, you can identify emerging trends and consumer preferences to incorporate into future natural product marketing strategies. The trends in the past years were bold flavors and ethnic cuisine.‍
• Partnerships and Collaborations: The expo can be a launching pad for partnerships that lead to retail distribution deals and collaborations with other brands.‍

• Product Launches: Brands regularly attend Expo West to launch their newest products. The event gets significant media coverage and consumer interest. For example, Chamberlain Coffee, by influencer Emma Chamberlain, introduced a new line of canned lattes at the expo.

Pre-Expo Strategy: Setting the Foundation for Success

So you want to know how to get noticed at Expo West. Well, the work starts well before the Expo even takes place. You can’t attend an event of that scope and just hope for the best. Every other brand is also working hard on their trade show activations in Anaheim, so you need a clear plan of attack and set goals you can strive for.

Create Pre-Event Buzz

You can’t expect potential consumers and partners to find you at the expo if they don’t know you’re there. If you want the right people to visit your booth, you need to spread the word.

You want to create excitement and anticipation around your products and motivate people to seek out your booth among all the rest. The three main strategies you should use are:

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• Leveraging Social Media: The best way to create buzz around your Expo West attendance is to promote it on social media. Post behind-the-scenes content, like travel pics or the booth setup, to build anticipation. To increase interest, you can share product sneak peeks or a poll urging your followers to guess what the product is. You can share these posts across multiple platforms, like Instagram, Facebook, and even LinkedIn, to reach a more diverse audience. Use custom hashtags and always include the official #ExpoWest hashtag for a possible like or share from the event’s social media team.

• Engaging in Email Marketing: If you want a specific caliber of visitors to come to your booth, why not invite them yourself? Your Natural Products Expo West 2025 marketing strategy should include an extensive email campaign notifying key retailers, buyers, and industry influencers about your plans to attend and inviting them to join you. Highlight what they can expect from your booth and any exclusive offers you’ll have.

• Securing Influencer Collaborations: Forming partnerships with health and wellness influencers can further amplify your visibility and create additional buzz prior to the event. You can sponsor their trip and attendance, and they can share their experience with their audience. Their presence at your booth can also increase interest. For example, Jenifer Garner appeared at Expo West to promote the Once Upon A Farm booth, and Blake Lively was there for the Betty Buzz mixers.

Have Clear Goals

You'll need to set a few SMART targets and goals to know if your Expo West brand activation is successful. Decide what the purpose of your participation in this trade show is. Do you want to:

• Lead Generation: Attract many potential clients and build a robust mailing list.
• Brand Awareness: Monitor mentions, likes, and shares on social media for recognition within the industry and a strong brand presence.
• Industry Partnerships: Connect and create relationships with key retailers and distributors who can expand your brand’s reach.
• Direct Sales: Convert interest into immediate purchases during and after the event.

Booth and Brand Experience Planning

Once you get attendees at your booth, getting them to stay is important. Driving booth traffic at Expo West isn’t easy. Hundreds of exhibitors are at the show, so your brand must have a unique selling point that will engage the interested parties for longer.

This means your Expo West booth ideas and design must be on point, and your staff must be friendly and knowledgeable. Here are a few logistical points to consider:

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• Booth Location: The Expo West has 512,000 square feet of space, with multiple halls and annexes. That is a lot of ground for visitors to cover. Position your booth at a location that offers high visibility and foot traffic. This usually includes spots near entrances, main aisles, or popular attractions within the venue.
  
• Booth Design: The expo offers several types of booths, so decide on a specific design after you pick a style. The design should incorporate your brand colors and prominently feature your logo and the products you're showcasing. Think banners, balloon arches, and large screens for promotional videos.

• Staff Training: One of the best practices for Expo West exhibitors is to bring staff knowledgeable and excited about the product they are promoting. They are the face of your product at the show, so they need to know how to answer most questions and get the crowd excited about what they’re seeing.
  
•  Brand Messaging: Your brand messaging and values must be consistent throughout, from the booth decorations to the printed promotional materials. If your brand focuses on sustainability, consider including promotional material printed on recycled paper or giving out goodies that aren’t just one-use.‍
• Interactive Elements: At Expo West, product sampling is a big deal. Most consumers have a "try before you buy" mindset, so why not have live demos showcasing what your product can do and how easy it is to use? If you’re launching a snack or beverage, have multiple stations giving out free samples or even full-sized products. If you want to showcase how you procure the raw goods that go into your product, have an AR/VR experience that places consumers in the heart of the harvesting process.

At-Expo Strategy: Driving Engagement and Maximizing ROI

Now that all of your pre-planning is done, it’s time to get your foot through the door and set up. The previous promotional efforts may get visitors to your booth, but it's up to you to get them to stick around.  As a company, you also want to get out of the expo as much as you put in.

Creating an Engaging Booth Experience

Trade show marketing for natural brands can still be exciting and memorable as long as you know what you’re doing. Trade show attendees say they remember at least one exhibitor they visited, even after six months, so make sure yours is the name that sticks with them. Some Expo West exhibitor tips on how you can do that are:

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• Product Sampling: Provide free samples and ensure they are always readily available and never run out. Hand them out on branded serving dishes, napkins, or utensils, and if possible, have staff outside the booth distribute samples and direct people to your booth.

• Live Activations: Make the activation fun for everyone. If you’re promoting a beverage, host a workshop showcasing how to use it in alcoholic and mock cocktails. If it’s a food item, hold a cooking class to demonstrate its versatility and taste. If your company focuses on beauty products, you can even organize a mini-spa experience for visitors.
  
• Gamification and Contests: Some other Expo West booth engagement ideas include giving out prizes and merch. You can increase engagement by hosting contests and giveaways, where the prize is a discount voucher or a package of your new products and merch. Announce it online, encourage followers to share, and also enter in person to increase their chances of winning.

Engaging With Attendees and Building Relationships

While attracting various expo attendees is important to building a varied consumer base, this is also your opportunity to create lasting relationships with key industry players. The Expo's website has a list of exhibitors, which you can use to find other brands to partner with.

You can also use the dedicated expo hashtag to see which retailers, distributors, and manufacturers plan on attending to establish a line of communication that you can later strengthen in person. Try to follow other relevant industry hashtags and discussions on platforms like LinkedIn and Twitter.

Once you engage with these high-value visitors, you need to collect their information for follow-up and future interactions. Use digital lead capture solutions and tools to scan badges and collect visitor information in mere moments. Offer fun stickers or badges to encourage badge scanning.

Place QR codes that lead to your website or product pages around the booth and on promo materials. Set up a system that triggers an automatic email to thank visitors instantly as soon as they register.

Maximizing Social Media Exposure

The best Expo West trade show marketing tip you can get is to use social media well and use it often during the event. Almost 90% of new and small businesses use social media as part of their marketing strategy and get positive results. You can use your social media to keep your followers up to date with what’s happening at your booth via:

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• Live Posting and Stories:  One aspect of social media advertising that draws audiences in is the aspect of authenticity, so give them a lot of behind-the-scenes content like booth setup and sample preparations. Seeing how actual customers react to your product can motivate them to try it for themselves, so share genuine customers' reactions.
  
• Trending Hashtag: Create a fun caption for every post and include your branded hashtags, those of your sponsors, partners, and the event itself. Encourage attendees to use these hashtags when posting about their experiences.
  
• Sharing User-Generated Content: Nothing is more authentic than actual user experiences, so encourage visitors to post their experiences at your booth and tag your brand. A simple way to do this is to create a photo booth with props or branded backdrops, then interact and comment on each post.

Post-Expo Strategy: Turning Leads into Loyal Customers

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Although the expo is over, your marketing efforts must continue even after everyone goes home. Now is the time to reach out to all the connections you made during the show and strengthen your professional relationships.

The follow-up process should happen almost immediately after Expo West closes, and must include:

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• Personalized Email Follow-ups: Create personalized email sequences for each category of contact you made. Send media info packets with details about your products and future endeavors. Provide distributors and retailers with concrete numbers to show how well your sales are doing. Ask manufacturers more about their raw materials and practices.‍
• Exclusive Post-Expo Offers: To convert leads into customers, create limited-time offers. Consider offering discounts, free trials, or exclusive access to new products as an incentive.

Using Event Content for Long-Term Impact

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While promoting your attendance at Expo West requires extensive marketing, you can now use all of your footage and pictures from the event for future advertising. You can share what was happening at your booth to show consumer interest and highlight interest in your products.

You’ll probably have enough material for a promotional video to embed on your website and share across your marketing channels. When pitching products to investors and retailers, you can use your KPIs as proof of the brand's revenue potential.

The entire thing can be a case study about how your product follows the latest trends, and your company can turn leads into actual sales and profits.

Expo West: Experiential Marketing For Success

The Natural Products Expo West trade show is an important annual event for all of those interested in and working with natural and organic products. It draws in massive crowds of visitors and exhibitors and attracts many investors and retailers. It’s an excellent opportunity to find your consumer base and link up with important industry players.

Your success at the show depends on your pre-, during, and post-event marketing efforts, which is tricky to stay on top of, especially if your company is new to the game.

Field marketing, mobile marketing tours, street team sampling and retail demo programs are all part of your marketing mix (along with the digital, social, shopper, etc).  Attack! Marketing has been attending Expo West for over 10 years.  We can assist in planning your 2025 to ensure you crush it at retail, connect with your target consumers where they relax, live and purchase and amplify your brand message to bring in new consumers & retailers!

If you are attending Expo West, let’s meet up. Schedule A Meeting!