Episode 230 Snippets: Savanah Alaniz of The Savannah Bananas

On episode 230 of the Digital and Social Media
Sports Podcast, Neil chatted with Savanah Alaniz,
Marketing Coordinator for the Savanah Bananas.
What follows is a collection of snippets from the
podcast. To hear the full interview and more,
check out the podcast on all podcast platforms
and at www.dsmsports.net.
@njh287; www.dsmsports.net
Best Of The Digital and
Social Media Sports Podcast
Episode 230: Savanah Alaniz

Savanah’s Career Path
“I got to Savannah on a whim. I grew up in Corpus
Christi, Texas, which is a small coastal town in Texas.
It's actually not too small. It was my sophomore year of
college and I was scrolling on Instagram one day. Mind
you, at the time I was already looking for an out-of-state
internship, I just wanted to live somewhere else. I was
watching [Instagram] Stories and one of my friends who
I had a class with and played baseball on the team
shared a Story and it was the Savannah Bananas. And
being named Savanah, I was like, ‘What the heck is this?’

“So I click on it and I'm scrolling through and I see
players dancing in kilts and a post about Bananciaga,
and I thought it was so funny. So I showed my roommate
and told her ‘You have to see this.’ And she said, ‘Oh, you
should see if they have any internships.’ So I looked
online and, sure enough, summer internships for 2020
had just opened up. I applied, went through like a month
and a half long application process, got the job, moved to
Savannah — in the middle of a global pandemic actually,
so that was super fun.

“While I was there, I got told my summer project was gonna be
TikTok. We had 205 followers on the day I got the password to
the TikTok. It was June 3rd, 2020. Then from there, not to toot
my horn, but I crushed it. I think we had 225,000 followers at
the end of the summer. Me and one of the other interns, Alex
Marinelli, we grinded on TikTok that summer…It was awesome,
and at that point I said, ‘I don't wanna leave. I'm not going back
to Texas.’ So I found a way to continue classes online, but then
also work part-time here mostly just doing TikTok.
“From there I worked my way into a full-time position now as
the Marketing Coordinator, and to follow up with TikTok, we
now have 3.3 million followers.”

“It was in the middle of that summer and we didn't start games
until July 1st. We kind of had a later start to the season just with
Covid and everything and my parents came to visit me at the end
of July and at that point I knew, like, ‘Okay, I've gotta go back.’ I
was in a sorority and everything; I was the vice president of PR for
my sorority and even sorority stuff was online that semester, so I
still got to do it then. My parents came to visit and I said, ‘Hey,
listen, I'm thinking about staying. I talked to my academic advisor.
He said I could do classes online. And I think I could manage,
even if it's just like one more semester and then I'll come home.’
My mom was super hesitant, but she said do what you gotta do. So
from that point forward, I just started making plans as to how can
I take my classes online, how much can I work at the Bananas, but
also manage a full course load plus being in a sorority?…”

Savanah gives an overview of the Savannah Bananas
“So the Savannah Bananas are a team that exists to make baseball fun. So yes, like the
Harlem Globetrotters, but it is a little bit more competitive in the sense that the
Bananas don't always win. I feel like the Globetrotters, whenever they play the
Washington Generals, typically you can expect a Globetrotters win, right? Not with the
Bananas. We honestly never know what's going to happen. So we can script out games
to a point in the sense of in the third inning with the second hitter, we're gonna have a
TikTok dance happen before the pitch is thrown. But we can't script if a pitch is gonna
be a ball or strike. So there's a difference there.
“But we did start as a college summer baseball team in 2016 in the Coastal Plain
League. Jesse and Emily Cole, they moved down to Savannah and started the Savannah
Bananas. Truthfully, the people of Savannah hated the name at first. They thought it
was outrageous and told us to get outta town and we didn't. We stayed that first season
in 2016, we sold out 18 of 25 games, and we actually won the championship that year.
So that was super cool, we got to stick it to those people that said ‘Get the heck out’ and
we said, ‘We're staying.’

“Then 2017, 2018, 2019 all happened. I wasn't here…we
kind of changed the way that things happened. We sold
out every single game those seasons, pretty easily
actually, and we kind of built a name for ourselves in
the sense of the goofy baseball team that likes to have
fun. So then in 2020 we started testing Banana Ball,
and that was our first real game. We had tested it
previously with a college team scrimmage, and it was
our first game the Bananas were playing. We split them
up to do a split squad game and they played Banana
Ball. It was the first game in 2020 and it was
outrageous.

“We created Banana Ball to speed up the game of baseball. So rules
are there's a two hour time limit, there are no walks — walks turned
into sprints, a hitter can advance as many bases as possible while
every fielder has to touch the ball. My favorite rule [is] a fan can
catch a foul ball for an out. I think it's everyone's favorite rule. But
it's so fun.
“So Banana Ball kind of took off. We got a lot of interest in it in
2020. In 2021, we decided, ‘Okay. last year was great. Let's do a
one-city world tour.’ So we went to Mobile, Alabama, played two
games there, sold out those two nights. Then we were like,, ‘Okay,
we did one city, let's see what we can do in 2022.’ Also this whole
time we're still playing in our college summer league, but also still
trying to play Banana Ball.

“So in 2022, we said ‘Let's do seven cities.’ So we went
mostly down in the southeast and then we went up to Kansas
City and we played Banana Ball and then we also got to play
against the Kansas City Monarchs, which is an
[independent] ball team, and it was incredible. We were like,
‘This is a real thing. We're actually kind of popular now.
We've got a little bit of fame behind us. People kind of know
who we are.’ So that is when we decided Banana Ball is the
future of the Savannah Bananas. So we left our college
summer league that played traditional nine-inning baseball
to pursue Banana Ball full-time. So 2023 and beyond will
just be Bananas traveling around playing Banana Ball and
bringing fun baseball to the masses”.

On learning the Bananas brand and onboarding with the team
“To start, the interview process for the Bananas is pretty intense, but like in the
best way possible. We have a very high emphasis on culture here and I know
probably a lot of people say, that we care a lot about our culture. You have to pass
a beer and barbecue test before you are brought onto the staff. So like, would you
go to a barbecue with this person and could you drink a beer with them and hold
a conversation? I did a month and a half of interviews; I think I had seven of
them. So I was testing not only my skills — I had just turned 20, was a
sophomore in college, but it was this many interviews to make sure you're the
right person for the job. Yes, there was a skills interview and smaller projects
you'd have to work on, but also I was getting asked questions like, ‘How would
you describe the color yellow to somebody that's blind?’ Questions that care more
about your heart and your personality than your actual skills. Because you can
teach Photoshop, but you can't teach culture, you know? And you can't teach
being funny. I would say all my coworkers are pretty hilarious. We spend a lot of
time outside the office together too; all of our time actually.

“So going into my internship, I kind of had a clear idea of
the people I'd be working with, one, but two, what was
expected out of the Bananas brand. Kara who started in
2018, did a great job of really creating a fun, not too serious
social media brand, and that kind of feels like the Bananas.
I want people now when they go look at the Bananas to
read the comments back to other people and go, ‘Oh yeah, I
would definitely, like, love to grab a beer or whatever with
this person.’ So whenever we came in, we once again got
culture training on we want to be fun, different,
enthusiastic, growing, and hungry, and kind of all those
values that make up our staff are also just the brand itself.

“I was scared. I think the first time I ever posted anything was an Instagram post,
maybe Facebook, and I was so nervous to click post, like, what am I even doing? I
felt imposter syndrome. Then I kind of just felt more comfortable as I grasped the
brand voice. I think it's something I've noticed now in my interns is, like, it kind
of takes them a while to understand what the brand voice is, but then once you
get it you've got it and you're just rocking from there. Now I don't think twice
about like posting anything, it's just regular. But in the beginning it was a little
scary.
“I think just like the people around me really helped to build me up and make me
feel comfortable. And then I also saw when I posted something, people really
liked it. So then it kind of built up my confidence to just keep doing what I'm
doing. Now I would say the Bananas brand sounds really similar to me. We're
almost one in the same. And not just me, but Kara, who's on social media, our
intern now — like you're hearing these different voices and we all talk the same,
like the Bananas. So the Bananas sound like us and we sound like the Bananas, if
that makes sense.”

About picking up TikTok in general and for the Bananas
strategy
“So what I didn't mention earlier is that before I came to the
Bananas, I actually worked at a church in student ministry.
And so because I did that I tried to like keep up with the kids
that I was working with, which were high school age girls. So
when they told me that they were on TikTok, I was like,
‘Alright, what the heck is this?’ So I'm scrolling and found out
it was pretty addictive. I loved it. And this was when I feel like
a lot of people didn't use it or like my friends in college were
making fun of me for using TikTok when they knew it was
like, ‘Oh yeah, my 13-year-old brother uses TikTok.’

“So I was kinda on there pretty early, but I was terrible at
making videos. Like if you go look at my account, my first
couple of videos in 2019, I'm telling you don't. Please save
me the embarrassment. So I kind of knew about TikTok,
thought it was interesting, and then in my interview process
they asked me, ‘What's one thing that you would change
about our marketing?’ And I said, ‘Oh, I would get you all a
TikTok. Easy peasy. The Bananas were built for the app.’ So
when I got there they said ‘That's your summer project’, it all
made sense to me at that point. I kind of already knew I had
the job before they told me because the Bananas went and
made a TikTok account like two days after my interview…

“So that whole spring after Covid shut everything
down, before I went to Savannah, I was keeping an
eye on TikTok trends and I was constantly turning
with ideas of what would be good for the Bananas to
do on TikTok. And you know, trends change all the
time, yada, yada, yada, but it was kind of just like we
spent a lot of time, me and my other intern partner,
Alex Marinelli, just researching. And by research I
mean like scrolling on TikTok, like what are people
posting?

“So we would find trends. And truthfully, the Bananas TikTok in
2020 was so different than it is now because we were just taking
iPhone videos and posting those. Then we kind of realized we can
up our craft and we can shoot these videos on a camera. Or now in
2022, we're shooting videos on a camera with a camera crew in a
game setting in the middle of it. Whereas it used to just be, like,
after practice we're getting a phone, players are wearing practice
gear and we're shooting these TikToks. So we've really progressed
from 2020 to now.
“But it was really just trial and error at the beginning. Like, this
might work, this might not, and we failed a lot before we really
succeeded at all. You know, you have to take chances and see what's
gonna resonate.”

On some of the early successes on TikTok
“There was one — it was the pose challenge, and it was
super big in 2020. It was like athletes at home were doing
it with their colleges was what I think I first saw. It was like
a picture from college and then a video of them going into
that pose and then you'd hear like a camera flash. So we did
that one and it was before the season started and that one
got like 30,000 likes, and I think MLB had liked it and I
freaked out. I was like, ‘We've made it, we're famous.’ Like
‘Who are the Kardashians? We're the Savannah Bananas.’
So that one popped off, was the first big one.

“And then we posted one, it was a player dance and we put a
Beyonce song over it and kind of mashed it up together to
make the dance fit the song. It was a player dance from 2016
and that one got like a hundred thousand likes. I felt like that
was kind of like when we took off, like at that point we had
started posting every single day and we saw exponential
growth. And that summer was just people everywhere, like
my friends from home telling me ‘I see you on my For You
page, this is so weird.’
“I felt like the Bananas were the most famous team in the
world then. Like, who are all these other famous people? It's
us.”

On goals for the Bananas TikTok and the wide fan base it
reaches
“We have the sole goal to make baseball fun. So anything
that we do or post, we think, how is this going to show
making baseball fun? It's a little bit different now, our
mindset has kind of changed in a sense because we're
playing Banana Ball, we're not playing traditional
baseball anymore. But it's still like, Banana Ball makes
baseball fun. It takes the long, slow and boring out of
baseball. So whenever people see the Bananas for the
first time, we hope that they laugh their butts off.

“When I post something on TikTok, I hope that whenever
anyone sees it that they think it's so intriguing that they have
to do exactly what I did the first time I saw the Bananas —
they have to go to the account and see more and all the other
things they see make them laugh and then make them wanna
show their roommate or their sister or brother, dad — like,
‘Oh my gosh, look what this baseball team did.’ And then it
grabs your attention so much that then you have to buy
merchandise. Then you have to get on the waitlist for tickets.
Then you have to post it on your Instagram Story. So my
hope is that we post something that just pulls you in, even if
it's not all the way, but pulls you in just enough to where you
have to [wonder] what the heck is this?”

On getting players involved in the Bananas TikTok and social content
“Whenever they come in, and now it's a little bit different because they see
the Bananas on social media, so they know what they’re getting themselves
into at this point. But earlier on, before I even got to Savannah, they had
the culture orientation, and our head coach, Tyler Gillum, did a great job of
bringing in players that not only were good ballplayers and could perform
on the field, but also were just good guys at heart.
“I knew that they cared about their fans. So we had great relationships with
college coaches, to bring in these guys that were just stand-up, awesome
people to begin with, and could play a little bit of ball. So they came in kind
of already knowing like, ‘Okay, I'm going to be fans first. So anything I do
— yes, I'm gonna be great at baseball, but then I'm also going to give an
exceptional experience for a fan one night or make these magical
moments.’

“So then whenever TikTok came about; obviously not all of
them knew what it was. And truth be told, I kind of got
picked on by them because I think working with baseball
players and you're kind of a young girl, they'll pick on you.
They're like your older brother. So I got made fun of all the
time, like Savanah and TikTok, blah — so it was really funny.
But when we started posting more and these videos started
to get views and then girls would go and follow the players
on Instagram or TikTok — then I started having the same
ones that would tease me about it come up to me and say,
‘Hey, I wanna be in your TikTok. I want some followers.’ So
then they were all begging to be in it. Then that's how it kind
of went on from there.

“Now the players take the liberty of creating their own
brands and making all this amazing content that we haven't
even thought of. Sometimes I'm like, ‘Dang, I wanna steal
that from them cuz it was so good.’ But it really has
transitioned from like, ‘Oh, you're gonna provide an
excellent experience at a game; not only are you gonna do
that, but also create cool content online.’ Some of them come
up with their own ideas. They're so bought in. We are so
lucky and fortunate to have the guys that we do because they
are so creative and fun, and have their own ideas, which is
like, you can go from doing something that we tell you to do
to then coming up with stuff on your own — that's just taking
the next step, and it's incredible to see.”

On the Bananas becoming a full-time team and not a college team and
how that affects player marketing
“It's definitely something that we have talked about more now than we
have in the past is how do we build these players' brands? So we think
specifically, like, if we post this TikTok of this person and we tag them,
whenever they go to their account are they gonna see that same kind of
content being posted?
“So Jackson Olson for example has a super popular TikTok, a super-
popular Banana, people love him. And I'm gonna use him as an example
because his brand — he's done a great job of building his brand before he
even was a Banana and he could do amazing things without us. But
people know about Jackson; he does food reviews for MLB and he was in
the MLB creator class.

On what success on social looks like for the Bananas
“We want the Bananas to be global. We want every single
person to know the brand. So whenever you're walking
on the street and you see an LA Dodgers cap, like you're
gonna recognize the logo immediately. [We want the
Bananas] to be like that…just to be super popular/ They
may not be able to attend the game, yes, but they can
share the video online with their friend. Then maybe
that person is in a city that we're touring to and then
they can go attend a game where they like the team, they
can buy merchandise, they think it's funny.

“I think it's cool and also just showing people that baseball is fun, reaching
a different audience of baseball fans. Clearly, we live in a TikTok world.
I'm 22 [and] I lose attention very quickly. I love watching traditional
baseball, truthfully, like I can sit through a four hour baseball game, but
most people my age wouldn't and they'd go strictly for the beer.
“So how can we reach a new audience of not only ticket buyers, but just
people in general, baseball fans and non-baseball fans to be like, ‘Hey,
baseball is cool, baseball is fun.’ And how can we bring some of that into
Major League Baseball even? I know the Bananas will never be a Major
League Baseball team, but how can we get these MLB players to make it a
little bit more fun and entertaining? Because we love the sport, we want it
to keep growing, and bringing joy to people and reaching people that
baseball wasn't able to reach before. So I think that's the big goal is to
continue making baseball fun and then obviously we want everybody to
know about the Bananas. They should. It brings a smile to your face.”

On executing quickly to catch the fast-moving
TikTok trends and memes
“We have a super awesome video team…They
work quick, they know trends, they understand
social media. So not only do they understand
[Adobe] Premier or After Effects, they also
understand social media and they're looking
constantly for ways that we can make our videos
better or stay on top of this trend.

“And so Caitlin, for example, she and I work very closely
together on TikTok specifically. We have a meeting every
single day at 4:00 where we talk about what are two trends
that we saw last night while we were scrolling TikTok in
bed and how can we Banana-fy those trends? And with
that, we have pieces of content and we talk about them as
like, ‘This is something that needs to go out right now
because this trend is gonna die next week.’ As weird as it
sounds, you can see the lifespan of a trend. You can tell if it
didn't grow really fast, do you think it's gonna stay longer?
Is it already going out? And those are kind of the trends
[that have a] short lifespan we’ll post them right away.

“But there are some that are more evergreen pieces. So we did the
Harlem Shake, for example, a few months ago. The Harlem Shake was
popular in like 2012, 2013, and we kind of brought it back. We made a
joke about, like, ‘We think the Harlem Shake should never die.’ So that is
a more evergreen piece. That trend lasted months and it was everywhere.
So that's something that like we could [have] in our pockets until, say, it's
January and it's off season. We're close to the end of it and we don't
really have new content coming in and then put that out and we know
whenever we shoot that in June that we're gonna save that piece for
December.
“So even now, we're barely into the off season, but there are certain
pieces of content that we can take and hold on to it or rework it or recycle
it to be trendy now and relevant now to, say, a trend that just came up.”

On participating in the TikTok trends vs. creating
original content
“I think we try to incorporate a little bit of both. I
think if you scroll our content, you'll find a way
that, yes, we completely gave in to a TikTok trend
and we did it on the mound or something. Like, we
just did the trend because we knew it needed to be
done; the people wanted it so we gave it to them.

“But there are some things also where it's like we started
doing throwdowns. So at the start of an inning, whenever a
pitcher would take his practice pitches and then catcher Bill
Leroy would throw it down to the second baseman or
shortstop, how can we make these throwdowns super
interesting? So we'd have them doing a wheelbarrow or on
each other's back, or we'd have Bill spin around, throw the
ball under his legs. So that is like — I don't feel like we're
starting a trend that way because we'll take that basic video
and add a trending sound behind it and that's how we give
into that trending sound, even if it's not like, we could do the
dance for it or whatever. We just put the sound behind it and
that's how we're reaching more people in the TikTok
algorithm.

“Or the — we call it a three two two — the dance on a
mound that our pitchers do. That picked up with Little
Leaguers, so I probably get at least one to two videos a
week from parents sending videos of their kids doing a
3-2-2 in their backyard or practicing a cartwheel before
they pitch. So these weird things that have never been
seen before in a baseball field Little Leaguers are trying
to do it. I think that's pretty cool. Will we ever start like a
super crazy viral trend like Charli D’ Amelio and
Addison Rae? Probably not. But the Little Leaguers
seeing it and that's pretty cool. I think that's more
important than the masses.”

On engaging with fans in the comments and replies on
Bananas social
“One thing I learned when I came in was it's super important
to respond to fans. So we used to try to respond to every
single comment. Now it's just kind of like gotten ridiculous
and out of hand, we can't respond to everyone. But I can
guarantee if you DM the Bananas something about
merchandise or like ‘What's up, Nana's? My boyfriend broke
up with me.’ Or like, ‘my friend is being rude,’ or ‘today's my
birthday’ [that] you'll get a response. And it'll either be from
me or Kara or one of our marketing interns. We have one
marketing intern a season, so there are three of us.

“So you're asking how we get it done — there are three of
us that really get in the trenches and get in there. I will
say that I spend probably like two hours of my day every
single day just responding to DMs or comments. And I'll
set timers for myself; it's pretty difficult because there
are so many people to respond to, but I make sure every
single DM gets answered. Then after that, do I have time
in my 20 minute timer I set for Facebook to go respond
to 20, 30 comments? So it is a lot, but it's fun. It's worth
it. And it also shows people that it's not just a robot
behind the screen. You have a real person and you can
also like become friends with them.

“I literally had a girl in the DMs earlier and she said, ‘Please let me date
one of you. I really love Dan Oberst and Dalton Maldin.’ And I was like,
‘Haha, we'll let them know, we'll pass along the message.’ And she said
something else and I was like, ‘As a friend of Dan, like, just slide into his
DMs. He'll definitely take the bait.’ And I was like, ‘But Dalton has a
girlfriend.’ So I was talking to her like it was just girl talk, like we were
just besties, and she thought it was so funny. She even said like, ‘Oh my
gosh, me and the Savannah Bananas are best friends now’, but she has no
idea it's me.
“So it's fun to just kind of be yourself and engage with these people in a
way that they won't forget it, like we talked about earlier. I have fun
doing it because I like hiding behind a brand account. No one's gonna
know it's me. They don't have to see my face, but they just see the little
yellow banana and they, love me that much more because of the logo.”

The most memorable experience involving a fan or fans in
Savanah’s time so far with the Bananas
“In the 2022 World Tour in Daytona Beach, I was tweeting on my
laptop on the sidelines and I heard fans whispering behind me, ‘Is
that the social media girl?’ And I was kind of like egging them on,
like ignoring them just a little bit so they would be more intrigued,
and then they got a notification that I had tweeted and they were
like, ‘Oh, shit, that's her.’ So when they tweeted something at me, I
tweeted something back and was like, ‘Hey, I'm super thirsty if you
wanna bring me a water.’ So they brought me a water, we ended up
like exchanging actual socials. We talked for the longest time. I was
about to just give up on working for the night and just chat with
these guys, grab a beer with them. They were so funny.

So now we still [keep in touch], I think they just
tweeted at me like two weeks ago and said like,
‘Hey, we saw you on Bananaland. You're famous
now.’ It's been like almost a year since that
happened, so it was pretty cool that they got to see
my face while also seeing the brand on my laptop.
And they also told me that they found the Bananas
on TikTok, so it was a very full-circle moment.”

What was it like seeing for Savanah seeing herself on TV on the
Welcome to Bananaland series?
“Oh gosh, it was so cringe actually. I have always said I don't wanna be
famous. And that's what I love about being at the Savannah Bananas is
I don't have to be famous, but I get to make this logo, this little yellow
banana logo, famous. And it's super cool to hide behind it, truthfully.
So I was so nervous when the show came out. Like, now people are
gonna know, they're gonna see my face when they see the Savannah
Bananas comment to somebody. They're gonna know it's me being a
little bit snarky in the comments or talking in a customer service voice
online and I'm so embarrassed. But it was really funny to see everyone
and whenever we would watch the episodes together in the locker
room, we would be like, ‘Oh my God, there's Kara or there's Caitlin.’

“So it was super funny because we all kind of feel like little celebrities
now, even though we're not. But I will say I've gotten randomly
recognized. In the Austin airport, I was flying to Hawaii, had a
layover in Austin and was on an elevator and this guy saw my
backpack and he said, ‘Go Bananas.’ And I turned around and I said,
‘Go Bananas.’ And he goes, ‘Oh shit, you're the girl. You're Savanah.’
And I was like, ‘Yeah.’ And it was just a really cool experience.
Nobody else on the elevator knew who I was and I was like, ‘Don't
worry guys, I'm like a Z List celebrity,’ but they thought it was funny.
“So it was definitely interesting to go from being somebody that
people knew but didn't know it was me, you know? Like people knew
who the Bananas were, but they didn't know who I was. And now if
you've watched Bananaland, you know who I am, too.”

Tell us about (Savanah’s alma mater) Texas A&M Corpus-
Christ
“Texas am Corpus Christi is actually, I think, one of the
only schools on its own island. So the school itself is on its
own island, there's nothing else there besides the campus.
So you can go over one bridge and get to the Navy base,
but you can go over another bridge and be in town. So it's
super cool; we have our own little private beach and we're
the Islanders, that's our name. Our colors are blue and
green, and at graduation you get to wear a lay, a little
purple flower lay. It's super cool. I love my school.

“We're also a branch of the big Texas A&M system, so I guess
also ‘GigEm;’ at the same time you get an Islander ring,
which is like an Aggie ring, so that's pretty cool. You also get
to do a ring dunk — I think that's my favorite Islander
tradition is whenever you get your ring, it's after you
complete 90 hours, you stick your ring into a pitcher of beer
and then you have however many seconds to chug the whole
entire beer and it's probably like seven or eight beers. So I
remember my pitcher celebration, my ring dunk; I had like
eight Bud Lights in it because I was like, ‘I can throw Bud
Lights back.’ Spoiler alert, I could not throw Bud Lights
back. I was freaking throwing up in the middle of it, it was
terrible. It was fun though.”

Tell me the idea or sketch or skit or concept that’s on Savanah’s wishlist for
Bananas social
“Oh my goodness. There was one thing that I had wanted us to do forever
and it was the ‘I don't dance’ High School Musical 2 parody and we finally
did it a few weeks ago and it was everything I could've ever dreamed of. It
was so perfect.
“But one thing that I would love to see the [Bananas opponent] Party
Animals do is I would love for them to do a beer snake at some tour stadium
that we go to that has goes super high up, like multiple levels of seats. I want
them to do a beer snake and somehow, like, maybe a beer funnel — a
massive beer funnel from the second floor all the way to the dugout. And
they get to beer bong or beer snake from up there; I think it would be
incredible. That is so freaking cool. So I'll be praying it happens one day.”

On the process for getting and executing TikTok
ideas
“Definitely a lot of scrolling. I call that my research. I
do spend a certain amount, anywhere from like 15 to
20 minutes [or more] depending on what I have for
the day. Just minutes of my day scrolling, seeing
what people are saying on Twitter about certain
things, or TikTok — what are the sounds that people
are using? Or Facebook even, like, what are the PTA
moms up to these days?

“So then I kind of figure out, alright, this is what the people are
talking about. So I have a long running list; I have a note in my
phone and then I also have an Excel sheet, and then also I
bookmark a lot of tweets. I bookmark a lot of TikToks to go back
to, but I typically add links in my notes, and then I'll add like a
little note under there of just what I'm thinking of. Normally
when I see a trend, I think in that moment, like, ‘Oh, this is what I
wanna do.’ So like I said earlier, Caitlin and I have this 4:00
meeting every single day where we talk about what are two trends
that we saw yesterday. That way we constantly know that we're
growing and learning new things. And half of these, more than
half of these — 75% of them will never see the light of day. It's just
we wanna keep that creative muscle in our brains working and
thinking of ways to Banana-fy trends or think of new trends.

“There have been times where I've just like sat and stared at
the wall and kind of hoped that an idea would come to me
and, like, it doesn't really work. I would rather scroll. But
yeah, there have been a couple times where I've just had to
like sit and look at the sky and kind of wait for something to
come to me. We also have ideas sessions. So that is where our
team gets together, we're told topics beforehand and we think
in these buckets and these categories of trying to think of,
like, hitter walkups that are unique or run celebrations, for
example.
“So we're constantly around here thinking of new ideas and
working that idea muscle.

The number one thing Savanah has learned from the owner of the Savannah
Bananas Jesse Cole.
“Oh, Jesse Cole. What have I learned from him? Oh my gosh, so many things
actually. He is kind of the reason why I feel like I can push the limits and step
over a boundary. Typically you don't have owners of teams telling you ‘Hey,
break the rules, do this crazy thing. You see the line, now go a mile past it.’
You don't have team owners selling you that. But Jesse gives you the
confidence that you can do that, and it's okay to fail at the Bananas because if
you don't fail a couple of times how are you gonna know what works and what
doesn't?
“So I think that's one thing I learned from him is it's okay to like fuck up and
fail miserably at something. And he's also just given me the confidence to be
able to mess up in my job, to be able to succeed ten times more than I messed
up before.”

Besides Facebook and Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter,
what social media platform does Savanah have her eye on?
“Oh, okay, this is personally my favorite social media
platform right now and I did make the Bananas account,
but it's really hard for me to keep up with and that is
BeReal. I don't know if a lot of people are on it, but I felt
like I was an early adopter of Be Real. I feel like I got it
before most of my friends did, just being the social media
girl, and it's my favorite app because I love when people on
social media can be very genuine and organic because that's
something that I feel like a lot of people just fail to do.

“There are so many like editing apps and filters and yada yaad yada,
and everyone uses them. But [with] BeReal, you just can't do that. My
pictures that I post on there are so ratched, like just laying in bed.
People think on Instagram I live this cool, glorious life, but really, like
my BeReal last night was me, no makeup on, hair in a messy bun,
making fish tacos. It's nothing glorious at all.
“So I made the Bananas [BeReal] account; it's on my iPad actually, so
whenever it goes off and you got your two-minute timer when I'm at
the office, I'll throw my iPad to a player, whoever's around and [ask
them] like, ‘Take this really fast.’ But that's my favorite app. TikTok has
a new addition to their platform, [like BeReal]. It's called Now. I'm not
a fan of it, honestly. Like, I'll probably never partake in Now, but I love
BeReal. So I think that's one that people should keep an eye on.”

The best food Savanah had on the
Bananas World Tour
“Okay, this instantly came to mind. I do
have to say that while we were on tour,
we had so many Jimmy John’s
sandwich platters because it was just
really easy to get. So I'm kind of sick of
Jimmy John's now, but I also randomly
crave it. But the best meal we had, we
were in Kansas City and I remember it
was a little bit chilly this night and after
the game, we all went and sat down,
had the player meal or whatever, and
there was this mac and cheese corn.

“But it was like kind of spicy, I don't even
know how to describe it, but some
restaurant in Kansas City had it. It was
definitely corn, but it was cheesy and
creamy. I don't know, it was just the best
thing I've ever had.
“Also we just had barbecue, good
barbecue, and after working like, I don't
know, from whatever time, nine or 10
o'clock that morning to 11 o'clock that
night, it freaking hit the spot. It was so
good. And we had some local beer to like
wash it down with, I love craft beers. It
was perfect. I wish we could play in Kansas
City all the time just for that corn.”

The Bananas player with the best personal social media
“I did say Jackson Olson [already]. (@j_olson2 on IG). He's got
quite the big social media presence.
“One player that I like to follow, and please don't make fun of me
for this if you're listening to this, if or you're one of my friends and
you're listening to this, please don't make fun of me, but Dalton
Mauldin (@DaltonMauldin on Twitter, @daltonmauldin5 on IG
and TikTok). He, and I'm saying this because he is a great friend to
begin with, but also he's the singer-songwriter. Great guy, lives in
Nashville. He also wrote me and the marketing team a song when
we hit 1 million followers on TikTok, so that was super cool.

“He's just genuinely a sweet guy and he posts
photo dumps on Instagram and his content is,
like, ‘I wrote this new song and I'm scared to show
the boys,’ and he's in the locker room and he's just
listening on his AirPods. It's really funny, but it's
cool to follow his journey of trying to make it big
as a singer-songwriter, but also being a Banana. I
love Dalton Mauldin. Give him a follow.”

What's the other sport that is most ripe for that Bananas
treatment?
“I don't know. I will say I grew up playing soccer, so, hmm,
I wish you could Banana-fy soccer, but I also just love the
beauty of soccer that I wanna leave it untouched. So I'm
going to say NFL. I think like those guys are — I mean,
you've gotta be a little bit goofy, silly and weird if you're
gonna run around and tackle other 300-pound sweaty
men, no offense to NFL players. But I think they could
really get a kick out of it..I think NFL can use a Banana-fy
rules session and I think they would love it, too.”

Savanah’s Social Media All-Star to Follow
“Other accounts that I like to follow, I love MLB Cut4 (@mlbcut4 on
IG, @cut4 on Twitter)). I think it's a super funny way [to cover MLB]
I think MLB should invest more into Cut4. It's a fun account, has
great reach, super trending, relevant — they're just a good follow…
“I love Astros Baseball [social]. I think whoever just recently took
over the Houston Astros social media is hilarious. I'm definitely
saving some of [their] tweets. Like, ‘Oh, I could definitely like make
this more generic for the Bananas.’ @AstrosBaseball tweets have
been popping off recently…And then yeah, follow Dalton Mauldin on
Instagram (@daltonmauldin5); he'll be my Insta shout out along
with MLB Cut4…”

Where to find the Bananas and Savanah on social
media
The Bananas are @TheSavBananas across
platforms and TheSavannahBananas.com
Find Savanah @savalaniz on Twitter, Instagram,
TikTok

Thanks again to Savanah for being so
generous with her time to share her
knowledge, experience, and expertise with
me!
For more content and episodes, subscribe to
the podcast, follow me on LinkedIn and on
Twitter @njh287, and visit
www.dsmsports.net.
@njh287; www.dsmsports.net

Episode 230 Snippets: Savanah Alaniz of The Savannah Bananas

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Episode 230 Snippets: Savanah Alaniz of The Savannah Bananas