Aiming for fame? Go Bananas.
“Imagine the best possible fan experience and do that.” – Jesse Cole
On what planet does a minor league team from Georgia sell out Fenway Park in Boston?
How does an exhibition baseball team have 9 million+ followers on TikTok? That’s 3x more than the New York Yankees and the Los Angeles Dodgers combined.
In what reality does this team have a 550,000+ season ticket waiting list? Even the Green Bay Packers only have 128,000 people on their waitlist.
It is ridiculous. It’s unbelievable. It’s bananas. And that’s the point.
The Savannah Bananas are famous because they put on a show.
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE SAVANNAH BANANAS
Sometimes players wear kilts. Occasionally they’ll swing flaming bats. They dance … a lot. They sing their own walkup songs. Their center fielder does backflips while catching the ball. One of their guys pitches and bats on stilts. They get autographs from kids.
They have a marching band and a dad bod cheer squad called the Man-anas. The owner wears a bright yellow tuxedo to every game. Oh, and they play great baseball. Well, they play Banana Ball.
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE SAVANNAH BANANAS
High brow? Nope. Fun as hell? Absolutely. ESPN called the Savannah Bananas “The greatest show in baseball.”
We’ve talked about fame and relative differentiation before. Bananas owner Jesse Cole is all in on both.
Jesse Cole, the P.T. Barnum of baseball | PHOTO COURTESY OF THE SAVANNAH BANANAS
The Savannah Bananas began in 2016 as just another minor league team in the Coastal Plains collegiate league. And they were great. They had three championship seasons and regularly sold out games at their 4,500-seat home stadium.
You’ll see some sort of show at almost every minor league game. Cole and his crew take a “fan first” approach and crank the fun up to 11.
They try a whole lot of stuff. Some of it works, most of it doesn’t. But you’ll see something new and unbelievable at every game.
This is one of their pitchers. He is pitching. | PHOTO COURTESY OF THE SAVANNAH BANANAS
But even with all the dancing, music, silliness and championship-level baseball, Cole noticed fans were still leaving early. It bothered him.
Fans leave early all the time, of course. It’s late, the game is going long, the game is over before it’s over, fans want to beat the rush to the parking lot, etc. You’ve been there. You know the deal.
Cole looked at baseball through the eyes of the fans and literally changed the game.
He took all the boring parts of baseball and created 9 new rules:
Games have a two hour time limit.
Batters cannot step out of the batter box.
No trips to the mound.
A batter can steal first base on any passed ball or wild pitch.
No walks. On ball four, the batter takes off running and keeps running until the ball is thrown to every defensive player. Only then can the defense try to throw the runner out.
No bunting. Any player who bunts will be tossed out of the game.
During extra innings, the defense can only have three players on the field — a pitcher, a catcher and a fielder. If the batter hits the ball, they must round the bases and score before the ball is chased down and thrown home for an out.
If a fan catches a foul ball, it’s an out.
Every inning matters. The team that scores the most runs in an inning gets a point for that inning. The team that has the most points wins the game.
Some of these speed things up. Some make baseball more exciting. Rule #8 brings the fans into the game in a whole new way.
Banana Ball was born.
The Savannah Bananas started to play regular baseball on the road and Banana Ball at home. It was sort of a “my house, my rules” approach.
So they left the Coastal Plains League to become an exhibition team, and Cole created a rival team called the Savannah Party Animals.
In 2022, the Bananas and the Party Animals went on a One City World Tour and played two sold-out games in Mobile, Alabama.
The following year, they played 18 games at home against the Savannah Party Animals. They took the show to 30 cities across the country, playing against teams like the Milwaukee Milkmen.
In 2024, the Bananas sold out MLB stadiums across the country. And they’ll be back in 2025 with an even bigger tour in 18 MLB stadiums and three NFL stadiums.
And with two new teams playing Banana Ball — the Firefighters and the Texas Tailgators — they’re growing the category and driving fame as far as it will take them. And they’re having a lot of fun along the way.
What does this mean for you?
The Bananas are the definition of a fame campaign.
Banana Ball is experimental, experiential and exciting. It’s wildly fun. It breaks hundreds of years of category norms and conventions.
Jesse Cole and the Savannah Bananas put fans at the center of the party. They put on a show from the moment fans enter the gates until long after the game is over. And fans reward them for it.
We’re not telling you to put on a yellow tux. It’s probably not a good idea for your sales team to do backflips while they’re closing deals (though you do you). Your brand isn’t going to sell out Fenway park.
But what if it could?
Find your own show. Be your own ringleader. We can help. We’ll see you next time
Sources!
Savannah Bananas to visit 3 football, 18 MLB stadiums in '25 - ESPN
Banana Ball's 'The Firefighters' Team Coached by TX Firefighter | Firehouse
‘More than baseball’: how the Savannah Bananas became the greatest show in sports
The Savannah Bananas are Coming to PNC Park
Grizzlies owner buying another baseball team
How Jesse Cole Transformed The Savannah Bananas Into A Marketing Phenomenon