Why big brands are going Bananas

Less than two years in, Bananas is working with Castle Lager, KFC, Heinz and now Truworths. We spoke to the OG Bananas, Saf Sindhi and Justin Gomes about why some very established brands are putting their trust in a very new kind of agency.

Bananas isn’t even two years old, but its client list reads like an agency that has had considerably longer to get its act together. Castle Lager is one of South Africa’s most iconic brands. KFC is one of the biggest restaurant brands in the world. Truworths is one of Africa’s major fashion retailers. And Heinz is, well, Heinz. All four have trusted Bananas with serious pieces of ad business. How? Why?

The answer is actually quite simple. At Bananas, the senior people are the ones making the work, not just reviewing it. The agency keeps a very experienced creative core at the centre, then builds the wider team around whatever each job actually needs. Justin has always thought of it a bit like a band: keep the key people together, then bring in the right specialists when the work calls for them. It means the people with the most experience stay close to the thinking, while the team around them can flex according to the job. For Justin, part of the attraction of launching Bananas was getting back to the reason he got into advertising in the first place. “I’ve got so much gratitude to be able to come full circle and get back to my craft.”

And that really is the thing with Bananas. So often the more senior you become in an agency, the further away you get from actually making the work. Here, the senior people are still in it. Amen. Between owners and CCOs Justin and Saf, ECD Sean Harrison, CD Chantelle dos Santos, and Business Manager Lynda Fiebiger there are more than 120 years of serious creative experience sitting right there, and brands get direct access to it.

And this probably helps explain why Bananas won Best Small Agency at the Loeries in its first year and placed third overall in the Creative Circle Agency of the Year rankings. And who can forget them waving the South African flag on stage at Cannes Lions last year like absolute rockstars? They may have burst onto the scene quickly, but this is clearly not a one-hit wonder.

For Castle Lager’s FIFA World Cup campaign, Bananas evolved the brand’s long-running positioning into ‘The Fans That Stood the Test of Time’, celebrating the Bafana supporters who had stayed with the team through 16 rollercoaster years. The idea moved through film, social, radio, PR, retail and tactical print, including the wonderfully simple ‘Hold My Beer’ newspaper ad after Bafana beat South Korea. Nice one, Bananas! And the business results were just as strong: 198 million campaign impressions, R34.5 million in earned media value, number one share of voice among African World Cup sponsors and a 17% increase in Castle can sales.

Thomas Lawrence, Brand Director at Castle Lager says, “Bananas consistently delivered against our ambitious goals, operating as a true extension of our team, and were instrumental to the campaign’s success. Bananas demonstrated the rare combination of world-class creativity, agility, and partnership.”

Castle Lager ‘The Fans That Stood the Test of Time’

Bananas’ first local KFC campaign has just landed and, by the looks of our feeds, pretty much broken the internet. To launch its new Korean Dunked range, KFC tapped into South Africa’s growing obsession with K drama, quite literally. The brand secured the rights to popular Korean dramas, delved into some of their most dramatic scenes, and reimagined them around the irresistible taste of KFC Korean Dunked. Across five episodes and three local languages, heartbreak, betrayal and longing suddenly became something far more serious: craving chicken. Same drama. New dialogue. Much more delicious.

And while Korean Dunked is busy having its moment, the results are in from Bananas’ international KFC campaigns too, and they make for some very good business reading. In Thailand, ‘Cake’ turned KFC’s 40th anniversary into the surreal Cakeverse, while ‘Missing Piece’ built a campaign around the particular torment of owning every collectible except the one you desperately want. And then there’s ‘Chizzalulu Chizzalala’, created to bring back KFC’s iconic Chizza in 2025. Bananas tapped into Gen Z’s wonderfully absurd Italian Brainrot obsession, where sharks wear sneakers, cappuccinos dance ballet and absolutely nothing needs to make sense. Enter Chizzalulu, a chaotic little creature with a serious identity crisis. Chicken or pizza? Eat him.

And all three did serious business. ‘Cake’ reached 99% of its campaign audience, pulled in 5.1 million engagements and delivered +2.6% year-on-year growth in KFC Thailand’s group-sharing portfolio. ‘Missing Piece’ reached 26.8 million people in its first week, sold out 800,000 mystery boxes within a month and exceeded its sales target by 17%. And ‘Chizzalulu’? Chizza sales came in 165% above target. The work feels unmistakably like big brand advertising…but don’t take our word for it, ask a lil ol’ awards company called ‘Cannes Lions’. Ever heard of it?

KFC ‘Let There Be Cake’

KFC ‘Miss ng Piece’

KFC ‘Chizzalulu’

Suhayl Limbada, CMO KFC India (KFC Thailand at the time) says, “Working with Bananas has been such a natural fit because they understand how to elevate ideas into something unforgettable, not just execute them. They’re not in it just to answer a brief. Once we have an idea we all believe in, it’s an amazing time to be part of the process because we all treat the work with genuine care and aim to nurture the idea from primary school into a grand graduation at Cannes!”

And now Heinz South Africa has entered the group chat. Bananas won the business through a multi-agency pitch and has been appointed to relaunch the brand locally. Breaking this week, three films from Karien Cherry of Giant Films form part of the broader ‘Taste what you’ve been missing’ campaign that saw the brand sell out its inaugural Heinz Braai day.

And perhaps the best endorsement of the Bananas model comes from the client itself. For their client, Passant El-Ghannam, the CMO for MEA and Turkey at The Kraft Heinz group, what clicked wasn’t only the work, but the way they worked together. “From day one, there was a rare alignment with Bananas: in ambition, agility, creativity and, most importantly, spirit. We are ONE team, not client and agency. I couldn’t have wished for better partners. Turns out, going Bananas was one of our best decisions.”

Heinz print ad. ‘Taste what your braai’s been missing.’

Justin believes that is also where the commercial argument starts to make sense for clients. “You’re paying for a certain quality of thinking,” he says. “Experience helps you get to the truth of the problem quicker, know what’s worth pursuing and build an idea that has the potential to last.”

Castle, KFC and Heinz are proof that what Bananas is doing is working. “The process is quicker too,” says Justin. “There are fewer meetings, fewer reverts, and it’s actually fun. It means less time passing notes backwards and forwards and more time getting to the real problem and making the work. It’s not about being small for the sake of being small; it’s about putting the right people in the right places.”

And to end off, in the immortal words of Saf Sindhi, “Advertising is so much fun when you’re doing it properly.”

Wanna (s)talk some more? Check out Bananas website or Go bananas at monkeybusiness@bananasagency.com.