I won the contest to see HIM live in concert, which means I was able to take a friend with me who hadn't bought a ticket.
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Fan rewards
While on the topic of fan rewards - what do you think about contests like these? I was chatting with a friend, and our conversation went to the idea that the fans who really want to promote the band and the show probably already have tickets. Her thought was that fans would probably like other incentives and rewards - like meet & greet passes, VIP access, a concert t-shirt when the fan got to the venue, etc...I totally agree - my ideal fan reward (within reason, of course!) would be a press pass - access behind the barrier to get awesome photos for the first three songs. (When I've had press access at concerts before, typically you only get to shoot the first three songs, and no complete song video...) Getting to bring my 'good' camera to a metal show would be amazing for me.
However, even though a huge fan would probably buy tickets on the first day they went on sale (or pretty quickly thereafter to avoid the chance of a sold-out show that he or she would miss) but might have friends who were on the fence about going - friends who might not be as enthusiastic of fans, but might just get on board after being won-over by a fantastic live show.
