Podcast Braden

The Savannah Bananas have achieved success due to their humor, unique brand, and fan-first approach. They stand out from other baseball teams by doing entertaining stunts and incorporating untraditional rules. Social media has played a significant role in spreading their brand and attracting fans. Their recognizable brand includes their name, logo, mascot, and bright yellow uniforms. The team aims to connect with fans and provide a memorable experience. There is no doubt that the Bananas' humor has been a huge reason why they've had the success they have recently. Thank you, Xavier, for that explanation. I will now be getting into another section of why the Bananas have been so successful, and that is their brand recognition. The Bananas have a very specific brand that no other professional baseball teams in the MLB or other major leagues have been able to achieve. So what is their brand? And how is it so recognizable? As we all know, baseball is one of America's most iconic sports and one that has been played for a few hundred years. If you are a baseball fan, you definitely watched and enjoyed the MLB, which is the most popular league in the U.S. The MLB makes it hard for other baseball teams and leagues to gain traction and become popular, but the Savannah Bananas have found a way to grab the attention of those fans. So how is this possible? Well, if the Bananas are doing things no other baseball team can. As mentioned earlier by Chris, they have a fan-first approach to their games and entertainment. This brand of baseball allows them to gain attention in ways that other teams don't. They do things like dancing before throwing a pitch or having players on stilts, or even they have players in the outfield catching fly balls while doing back flips. You will not see other pro teams doing things like this, setting the Savannah Bananas brand apart from others. On top of these crazy stunts, the team also has untraditional rules added to make the game more entertaining, like if a fan catches a foul ball, then that player is out. All this has helped to build the Bananas, the banana ball brand we all know today from Savannah Bananas. Since the Bananas have such a unique and different brand of baseball compared to other pro teams, how are they able to market this and spread their brand to so many people? Well, the easy answer is social media. If you're on TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, X, and many other social media platforms, there's a good shot you've come across the Savannah Bananas. Social media has been essential to the Bananas brand and their rise to popularity. In today's society, social media is the biggest way people follow their favorite teams. People look to it for updates on their team and they're able to promote events and games that are happening. The Bananas saw all this and posted content from their games that drew people's attention. One of the first ways that I saw the Bananas personally was when they would do TikTok trends and dances on the field before throwing pitches. Fans saw this and started becoming interested in this different, fun style of baseball. This then led to more people wanting to see this brand of baseball in person, which has allowed for the Bananas to become even bigger. They even play in stadiums as large as MLB ones. Social media is this factor that grabs people's attention and has been huge for the Savannah Bananas in promoting their brand online to millions of people. We know that even if you have a good video, there's no guaranteeing that video will gain traction on social media since the platforms have millions and millions of people and videos. That is why it's so important to establish a recognizable brand and image for your team in sports, especially if you're not associated with major leagues like MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL, and so on. How do the Savannah Bananas stand out? On top of all the creative ways they play the game of baseball, they have a unique brand when it comes to things like their name, logo, mascot, and uniform. The Bananas have bright yellow uniforms most of the time and a fun, humorous name and logo, being the Bananas. The reason they did this was to make sure people remember their brand and they stick out from the crowd, and they have done a good job of not getting lost in this crowd of entertainers or going away from their original ideas and brand. There's this idea in sports marketing of allowing fans to personally connect with the team in a way, fall in love with that team. The way the Savannah Bananas operate, they make this very easy for fans and with their very noticeable brand and team and fan-first approach of entertainment. Now I'm going to send it back over to Elsa and Xavier.