How the Savannah Bananas are changing the fan experience
Major League Baseball has a problem. America’s national pastime and part of society for nearly 200 years, the game is struggling to figure out how to attract new fans and keep ballparks filled for a season that lasts 162 games.
This past weekend serves as an example. My wife and I were glued to our seats in a thrilling 3-2 victory for our hometown San Francisco Giants against the archrival Los Angeles Dodgers. Not so for the 4 teenage girls seated ahead of us in the front row of the second deck. Their incredible view did nothing to hold their attention and could not compete with the Instagram photos they were taking … of each other!
Enter the Savannah Bananas. If you want a reason to smile today, watch this hilarious news segment. This minor league team has managed to capture the attention of everyday fans through a mixture of entertainment, high value for the dollar, and a bit of rule-bending.
While baseball purists will scoff, the results are incredible. Every game is sold out, 51,000 people are on the ticket waitlist, and they have more TikTok fans (>2.5 million) than the New York Yankees and Mets combined.
Team owner Jesse Cole, known for wearing his yellow tux to games, summarizes it best: “Our goal is to make baseball fun. We celebrate everything!”
Just like baseball, healthcare purists will scoff at the idea of making medical or dental visits more enjoyable, perhaps even fun. Imagine what your practice would be like if patients wanted to come to see you, despite whatever medical condition they have. Imagine If your practice was sold out every day and had a waiting list of patients wanting to get in.
In the modern experience economy, you are competing for the attention as well as the time and money of the healthcare consumer. Of the 3, attention is the hardest to get. Keep doing what you’ve always done, and you are going to lose people’s attention. Be willing to change some things in the practice, and now you earn the attention you want and deserve for what you offer.