At Natural Products Expo West 2026 in Anaheim, JonnyPops brought its growing lineup of simple ingredient frozen treats to one of the natural foods industry’s most important stages. With a 30-foot footprint, an expansion from the brand’s previous 20-foot presence, JonnyPops used the show to connect with buyers, retail partners, and industry peers while introducing its newest products to a broader audience.
For JonnyPops, Expo West functions as more than a trade event. The brand approaches every person walking the show floor as a potential fan or future consumer, which shapes how the team thinks about exhibit design, product presentation, and engagement strategy. As JonnyPops’ trade show exhibit partner, STAR helped bring that philosophy to life in an exhibit built around three distinct stations: a sampling area, a new freezer display, and a private meeting space behind a branded stick wall.
Vision
JonnyPops came to Expo West 2026 with a clear set of priorities: share kindness, grow the brand’s community, and get its newest innovations in front of the people who can put them on shelves. The brand had been building incrementally, expanding its product lineup and its show presence in parallel, and 2026 represented another step forward in that trajectory.
The exhibit needed to reflect that growth while remaining true to what JonnyPops is at its core: an approachable, kindness-forward brand that leads with the product. Rather than relying on messaging alone, the goal was to create a space where attendees could experience JonnyPops firsthand, and where buyers could walk away with a concrete picture of what the brand looks like at retail.
STAR Solution
Three stations. One seamless experience.
The 2026 JonnyPops exhibit was structured around three functional zones, each designed to serve a different moment in the attendee journey while contributing to a cohesive brand experience across the full footprint.
The sampling station anchored the exhibit’s front-facing presence. Product sampling has always been central to how JonnyPops introduces itself, the brand’s ethos of sharing kindness translates directly into putting product in people’s hands, and the station gave the team a high-traffic touchpoint for connecting with buyers, press, and show-floor visitors alike. Even attendees from other brands stopped by, many of them already fans at home, reinforcing how deeply JonnyPops has embedded itself in the natural foods space.
A new approach to shelf visualization.
The center section was new for 2026. A freezer display allowed JonnyPops to show buyers and retail partners exactly what its products look like on shelf, a practical and strategically valuable addition for a brand actively pursuing incremental placement. Rather than asking buyers to imagine the product in their stores, the display made that picture concrete, bridging the gap between the show floor and the grocery aisle.
Private space for deeper conversations.
Behind the stick wall, a private meeting area gave the JonnyPops team a quieter setting for focused buyer conversations. Separated from the energy of the show floor, the space supported the kind of detailed, relationship-driven dialogue around new products, distribution opportunities, and retail strategy — that can’t happen easily at a sample station. Having that dedicated space within the same footprint meant the exhibit could serve casual visitors and priority partners simultaneously, without either experience compromising the other.
Impact
The expanded footprint and three-zone structure gave JonnyPops a more versatile and strategically complete presence at Expo West than in previous years. The sampling station drove broad engagement; the freezer display strengthened retail-facing conversations; and the private meeting area created room for the substantive dialogue that supports long-term growth. Taken together, the exhibit reflected exactly where the brand is headed, and gave STAR the opportunity to help JonnyPops build the show presence to match.
Conclusion
At Expo West 2026, JonnyPops used an expanded exhibit and a more intentional spatial strategy to deepen its engagement with the natural foods industry. Through a three-zone exhibit designed around sampling, shelf visualization, and private meetings, STAR helped JonnyPops create an environment that balanced broad accessibility with focused buyer engagement, positioning the brand for continued growth at future shows.
