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Prop Room

How one baseball team's unconventional creative space became a blueprint for marketing departments seeking to spark innovation

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How one baseball team's unconventional creative space became a blueprint for marketing departments seeking to spark innovation

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In this episode of the Fans First series, Jesse Cole, the mastermind behind the Savannah Bananas, shares with us that in the vibrant world of marketing, creativity knows no bounds—a philosophy embodied by a prop room and studio teeming with eclectic costumes and outlandish ideas. This creative hub, seemingly disconnected from conventional themes like bananas, serves as a wellspring of inspiration for marketing professionals looking to infuse fun into the mundane.

In the vibrant world of marketing, creativity knows no bounds—a philosophy embodied by a prop room and studio teeming with eclectic costumes and outlandish ideas.

In the realm of promotional events, the unconventional often makes the most memorable impact. Embracing the absurdity of a prop-filled studio can not only enhance audience engagement but also challenge other professionals to think outside the box. This approach invites marketers to draw inspiration from the bizarre to create promotions that stand out, ensuring their brand resonates as distinct and dynamic in the bustling marketplace.

Embracing the absurdity of a prop-filled studio can not only enhance audience engagement but also challenge other professionals to think outside the box.

Video TranscriptExpand ↓

So we are in our prop room and studio, and this is where all the silliness and the fun and some of the crazy ideas come from. Yes. We have a lot of ridiculous costumes that have nothing to do with bananas, but this is where some of the inspiration. So, you know, one day we thought, hey. The umpire meeting is pretty boring. So why don't we spice it up a little bit? So we bought a Barney costume, character come out to the I Love You song and give massages to the umpires and start, you know, hugging the different coaches to try to bring them together. Makes very little sense, but it's a lot of fun. We've got here the turtle costume. Again, what's normal? Those fast mascot races. You know, the mascot runs a race and he loses, but we said, let's create the world's slowest race. And so we do toddler versus turtle. So we have, like, four toddlers. They're all about, you know, nine months, and they're all in there. They can barely crawl. We play the Chariots of Fire theme song, and they are just slowly moving. Some just start crying. Some just look the other way. Some go and hug the turtle. You never know what's gonna happen. That's a lot of fun. A promotion that went wrong was, last year, one of our, we had an idea palooza about some promotions we could do to finish the season. And one of our team members said, what about living pinata? I go, living pinata? They said, well, we'll put an intern in a in a costume and have kids go out with plastic bats and hit them while he throws candy up in the air. Just things here. Like, we got a a gorilla costume. We've had weird gorilla races. We're looking on the character Furious George. We don't know what that looks like, but it sounds fun. So we're gonna maybe have a a crazy character. Let's see over here. Oh, these are our, French maid costumes right here. You know, everyone goes out and cleans the bases once in a while. We said, what if we had grown men wear these French maid costumes and go out and clean the dirty, dirty bases? Very, very weird. Fans laugh at it. We have a lot of fun here. So keep going through all these, but all these stir up different ideas. This is our pig. Why do we have a pig costume? Because the Macon Bacon decided to come out as a team name right after the Savannah bananas, and we thought it was wrong. So first, we rented a pig, and we did a a promotional video, save the pigs, stop making bacon, to, like, Sarah McLaughlin's video in the arms of the angel. So whenever we play the making bacon, we got someone in a pig costume holding that sign, save save the pigs, stop making bacon. Rally shark doesn't make sense, but you know the shark song. You know, again, we have fun with that. We got toilet seats over here because we do musical toilets. Musical chairs are too boring. Might as well have musical toilets. What's great is that when we just look at these, they become ideas. And if it's sometimes if it doesn't make sense, it makes a lot of sense. All of us have been to promotional shows, trade shows. I challenge you to first write three promotional items that you got at a trade show that actually stood out, that you kept, that really made a difference, that are different. And then I would challenge you what could be three that you could come up with that would stand out that are a little different. Take some inspiration from this crazy prop closet and think, alright Is it funny underwear? Is it a jockstrap? I don't know. What is it that you're giving away that could create some noise and make people think, hey, these guys are different. They're not like everybody else.

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