Del Monte Fresh Produce Teams up With Tech Startup for World Record

Del Monte Fresh is joining forces with ad tech startup, Gnack, to recruit hundreds of people in attempt to break the world record of “Most people dressed as fruit.” The record is currently held by the international DJs/Producers, Dada Life, at 629 people.

Gnack is organizing a massive party for “The World Record Breaking Banana Bash” on March 13th at The Belmont on Austin's famous 6th Street. Around 850 people are expected to come together to break the record, company officials say.

The produce company has prioritized connecting with their millennial audience in a fun and unique way, officials add. After running successful banana costume Halloween campaigns, collaborating with an innovative tech startup like Gnack was a natural fit. Dennis Christou, vice president of marketing of Del Monte Fresh Produce says, “Consumers love dressing up as bananas. Using that excitement to break the world record is a great opportunity for Del Monte Fresh and our friends at Gnack to generate buzz and benefit from the viral power of social media.”

The event itself went viral shortly after being posted to the public on Facebook. “It was just a funny idea at first, then about 48 hours after we created the Facebook event we had over 100,000 organic impressions all unpaid. The public spoke and we really got serious about the planning,” says Dean Thomas, CMO at Gnack. “People began to post about and share the event so much that we sold out of early bird tickets in just a few days.”  

Facebook fans immediately embraced the idea and left their feedback on the social media space, “What's better than being a banana?” posted Erika Guevara.  Kelly Ngo posted a message saying, “When I was younger I wanted to break a world record. Now I can, with my fellow banana costumed friends.”

Tickets to the event include entrance to the party and a banana costume that participants can keep as a souvenir.