Key Takeaways
• Moment Merch: Seize opportunities to create merchandise tied to viral events, as demonstrated by the Savannah Bananas’ quick response to the Comedian artwork sale.
• Scarcity Builds Demand: Limited-edition drops, like the 62 duct-taped banana T-shirts, can drive excitement and exclusivity for a brand.
• Calculated Risks: Embrace fun and spontaneous ideas to engage fans and create buzz, even if they seem unconventional.
Anyone who attended the keynote at ASI Orlando this year knows that Savannah Bananas owner Jesse Cole is a master of merch – and isn’t afraid to seize an opportunity when he sees one.
Case in point is the super-limited line of T-shirts the Bananas launched shortly after learning about the sale of Comedian, a piece of conceptual art that’s been ripe for ridicule since it debuted in 2019 at Art Basel Miami Beach.
The Savannah Bananas created 62 of these T-shirts in honor of the conceptual artwork Comedian that recently sold for $6.2 million at Sotheby’s.
The work by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan consists of a single banana affixed to a white wall with silver duct tape. For anyone worried about hanging a rotting fruit in your living room and calling it art, fear not: The banana and duct tape can be replaced as needed.
Earlier this month, Justin Sun, founder of cryptocurrency platform TRON, paid $6.2 million at a Sotheby’s auction for the artwork. Or rather, he purchased a certificate of authenticity giving him the right to duct-tape a banana to a wall and dub it Comedian, the AP reported.
When Cole and his team heard the news, they immediately jumped into action, despite their season and tour being over. The Bananas honored the viral art piece with a T-shirt featuring their logo – an anthropomorphized banana holding a baseball bat – with a piece of duct tape slapped over it. The team offered the T-shirt as a collector’s item – selling only 62 at $62.40 a pop. The tees sold out in six minutes, according to Cole.
“Attention beats marketing, and speed wins,” Cole explained in a post on LinkedIn. “This wasn’t in our merchandise plans or our social media plans. But our team was nimble enough to quickly make it happen and test this fun experiment. Could we have sold more? 1,000%. But it wasn’t about money. It was about having some fun with a great tie-in to our brand while creating some attention.”
This fruitful endeavor holds several appealing lessons for promotional products professionals who aren’t too yellow to give them a try (sorry, not sorry).
Lean into moment merch: I’ve been writing about the concept of moment merch for years – since the days when the internet was debating whether they heard “Laurel” or “Yanny.” The idea is that certain events in sports, politics and pop culture set social media alight, and savvy merch makers – leveraging print-on-demand and other technology – can latch onto those moments to create clever designs that capture online attention. It can be a delicate balance to distinguish between flash-in-the-pan phenomena and ideas that will truly resonate with your audience, but for those who are agile enough to react quickly when the time is right, the rewards are rich.
Build demand with scarcity: As Cole noted, the Savannah Bananas could have flooded the market with an unlimited number of duct-taped tees, but that would have diluted the impact. Seasonal designs and limited-edition merch drops help drive excitement and cachet for a brand
Don’t be afraid to take calculated risks and have fun. “Normal gets normal results,” Cole explains. Sometimes it’s worth trying out an idea that may seem a little, well, bananas, just to see what happens. Sure, you might slip and fall on the peel, but what if you don’t?
For the Savannah Bananas, creating those duct-tape tees was a way to have fun and spark fan conversations. The attention from news sites was just the whipped cream on top of the banana pie, so to speak. “As we’ve grown to be a much bigger company, staying nimble and doing some spontaneous, crazy things keeps it fresh and exciting for everyone in our organization,” Cole says.
