Supply Side Global is the supplement industry’s flagship trade show, the floor where brands, formulators, and manufacturers find their next partner. In 2025 Lief Labs had its own booth for the first time, and I ran the brand activation from start to finish: one campaign carried across the booth, sample packaging, print, merch, and the emails and posts before, during, and after the show.
One campaign, every surface.
Supply Side Global pulls thousands of buyers and brand founders into one hall over two days. For a manufacturer that had spent two decades building quietly behind other people’s labels, it was the first booth of its own, with the Lief brand front and center in a room full of the people it was made for.
So it was built as a campaign, not a booth. One idea carried through sample packaging, print, merch, email, and social, then landed in a physical space that had to hold up to a close conversation.
Samples that read as product.
The sampling program needed packaging that read as finished product, not promo. I designed five labels across stickpacks, sachets, and jars, so every sample on the table looked like something you could buy tomorrow.
Digital, around the show.
The floor was only half of it. Email, LinkedIn, and social carried the campaign to the people who couldn’t make it to the booth, and kept the conversation going after the lights came down.
Pre-show
Email 1: We’re attending SSG
Let clients know Lief is attending
LinkedIn: Attending SSG announcement
Instagram: Announcement story
Story + Highlights section
Email 2 + Story: Book a booth visit
Encourage scheduling meetings at the booth
Email 3: See you tomorrow
Energize and confirm booth details
Story: See you tomorrow
During show
Story: Arrival + booth setup timelapse
Story: Directions to booth #3417
Sped-up walk through show floor to booth
Story: Show highlights
Foot traffic, team selfies, behind-the-scenes, product close-ups
Post-show
Story: Thank you
Email 4: Thank you + reconnect
Overview + reconnect and convert captured leads
Instagram: Show overview / follow-up
Maximum impact, minimum space.
Inside a compact footprint, the booth had to read from across the hall and still hold up to a close conversation: a bold backwall, a branded counter, a sample station, and a meeting space, all planned to scale before anything was fabricated.
We didn’t try to look big. We wanted to look like a partner you’d trust to make your product.
A booth is the visible tenth of an activation. The rest is freight and drayage, electrical and rigging, lead retrieval, staffing, and a build-and-teardown schedule timed to the hour. I handled that side along with the design, so everything showed up on the floor the way we planned it.
Show-planning checklist- Booth fabrication & freight
- Electrical, rigging & drayage
- Lead-retrieval hardware & tagging
- Staff scheduling & talking points
- Collateral & merch production
- Pre-show outreach & meetings
- On-site setup & teardown
- Post-show lead handoff to sales
