My 7-Year-Old Said One Word That Explains Everything
About Word of Mouth Marketing
I posted on my personal Facebook last Saturday night, still giddy while heading home:
"Banana Ball has ruined regular baseball for me"
And I love going to baseball games.
That sentence is not a complaint. It is the highest compliment I know how to give. And by the time you finish reading this, you'll understand exactly why it's also the best word of mouth marketing case study I've ever witnessed in person — and what it means for your business.
We Had the "Crappy" Seats
I'll be upfront about something.
We were not in the premium spots. Nolan, my youngest, has been a Savannah Bananas fan for a while. Last summer he attended one of their clinics — where they taught kids baseball and dance lessons in the same session — and went from fan to obsessed after meeting the players in person. When I found tickets to Kyle Field as his Christmas gift, there was no question.
I bought the least expensive option available, which meant we were on the opposite side of the diamond — players' backs mostly turned toward us, watching the on-field action on the giant screens scattered around the stadium.
102,000 people. The largest crowd in Savannah Bananas history.
I still had the best fricken time.
What Actually Happened That Night
Let me paint you a picture.
Little kids sprinting down the field in a racing of the bulls — chased by Toro, the Houston Texans mascot — while parents in the stands completely lost their minds. Babies crawling toward their parents in the world's smallest race, with an entire stadium section holding its breath over a finish line built for someone who can't walk yet.
The "Beefy Boys" from the Texas Tailgaters — the opposing team — washing a random car in the parking lot outside the stadium. Because of course they were.
The Tailgators coach standing next to first base with a full BBQ setup, grilling hot dogs and handing them directly to players and fans within arm's reach. At a baseball game. In a football stadium.
And then the Tailgators entrance. They came out of the tunnel to Power by Kanye West, led in by the Texas A&M Rodeo team with fireworks going off behind them. Because this was a Texas event, and they treated it like one.
The whole stadium danced. The whole stadium sang. Players, fans, staff — the line barely existed. It was just one enormous, ridiculous, joyful thing, and you were either already in it or being pulled in whether you planned to be or not.
And here's the part that got me as a marketer:
Jesse Cole and other players didn't stay near the field. They came all the way up into the 300 and 400 sections — the nosebleeds, the cheap seats, the people who paid the least and had the least obvious view — to interact with fans. Rotational players were signing autographs up there. Nobody in that stadium was a spectator. Everyone was part of the show.
The Word
After the game, walking back to the car, I turned to Nolan and asked: "Did you have an awesome time, or what?"
He thought about it for a second.
"None of those."
I looked at him.
"It was BRILLIANT."
He's 7. I've been smiling about that for four days.
Her'es The Marketing Part
Most businesses think they have a marketing problem.
Post more consistently. Run better ads. Hire a strategist (hi 👋). Find the right hook. Get on the right platform.
And sometimes those things help. They do. But here's what I've watched happen over and over again working with experience-driven brands:
The marketing isn't what's broken. The experience is.
When the experience is truly remarkable — when it makes people feel something they can't explain and can't stop talking about — the marketing almost takes care of itself. People share it. Film it. Drive across the country for it. Buy tickets to something they've never seen because someone they trust couldn't shut up about it.
That's not a marketing strategy. That's word of mouth at scale. And it starts long before anyone picks up their phone to post.
The Story Behind The Stadium
Ten years ago, Jesse Cole and his wife Emily could barely sell two tickets.
They'd taken over a collegiate summer league baseball team in Savannah, Georgia. Within months, they were out of money entirely. They sold their house, moved into a bug-infested duplex, and slept on an air mattress with their socks on because the floors were too dirty to touch. They took on $1.8 million in debt.
Not because the marketing was failing. Because they believed the experience was worth fighting for.
Jesse Cole has said that attention beats marketing every single time. He's right. But attention isn't something you buy. You earn it by being obsessed with one question: how does this person feel?
Not what do they know. Not what do they think. How do they feel.
It Didn't Start at the Gate
Here's what gets me, as someone who thinks about experience design for a living.
The Savannah Bananas didn't just make the premium experience great. They designed for everyone in that building — the 400 section, the parking lot, the Beefy Boys washing a random car outside.
But here's the part that really stopped me.
It didn't start Saturday night.
Thursday, they played a free pop-up game at Navasota High School and brought The All American Rejects to play a free concert while they were at it. Local school, local community, no ticket required.
Friday, players were signing autographs at the local Academy. Saturday morning, they were at Shipley's Donuts.
Saturday afternoon, they were in the park directly across from Kyle Field tailgating with thousands of fans — signing, dancing, just being present with people who'd been waiting all week.
By the time 102,000 people walked through those gates Saturday night, the Savannah Bananas had already spent three days making that community feel like it belonged to them.
They didn't make it a game day experience. They made it a three-day experience.
That's experience architecture at every level — every section, every zip code, every person who might not even have a ticket to the game. And when you get it right, marketing becomes almost redundant. Your customers become your campaign.
The Question Worth Sitting With
My 7-year-old didn't say "awesome." He said BRILLIANT.
He will remember that night for the rest of his life. So will I. And I will tell everyone who will listen — which, as a marketer with a following full of business owners, is kind of a lot of people.
That's what a truly remarkable experience does. It doesn't create customers. It creates advocates.
So before you plan your next campaign, write your next post, or wonder why your content isn't converting — ask yourself one honest question:
Is the experience I'm selling actually as remarkable as the marketing I'm trying to build around it?
Because more marketing doesn't fix a forgettable experience, it just amplifies it.
And if you're not sure whether your marketing is actually selling the experience you've built — or quietly working against it — that's exactly what I help experience-driven brands figure out.
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