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NKOTB 2017 Tour

NKOTB

Raleigh NC

July 2017

Entering the VIP:

This turned out to be a night I will never ever forget thanks to Donnie, Jordan, Joe, Jon and Danny! NKOTB has always done one of the best VIP experiences in my opinion. The only thing I really, really wish they would change is make it mandatory groups of 5 instead of 10. It’s so hard to find 10 people that will be happy with who they end up standing with. We had a full group for Raleigh but, a side note, I went to the Charlotte show as well and that was a total and complete cluster. The VIP management was not verifying groups before letting people in which resulted in our group of 10 being totally split up which wasn’t right at all. Back to Raleigh, we finally got in out of the heat and entered the party room which was set up great with all kinds of photo op props, the bar was open and they had some snack foods.

They started lining us up for our photos and as always the experience was awesome with the guys. Once all the group photos were done those of us that had the Ultimate upgrade were lined back up (we had an interaction just us and the guys). I love that they give this option! I entered and was met by Danny and Donnie. I was joking around with Donnie saying you always tell me to remind you to follow me on twitter but, you never follow. Little did I know at that time that Jordan was doing a FB live so Donnie’s face lights up and next thing I know Donnie is live following me on twitter after all these years on Jordan’s FB live. The entire experience had me laughing harder than I had in years! Joe was commentating, Jordan and Donnie were being absolutely hilarious. I quite literally had the time of my life in that 5-10 minutes I was with them. They all made me feel so special and really after the year I had to that point I needed a great laugh and they sure delivered.

Show: I had a pit ticket for the Raleigh show and then had a lower bowl seat for Charlotte. The pit is always such a crap shoot. I ended up with this very tall, very drunk woman in front of me when they were on the inside stage and didn’t really have any interaction when they were on the outer stage. In retrospect I probably should have done the bar stools like last tour. The lower bowl seat in Charlotte was ok and we did have interaction with Donnie when he was returning to the stage one time.

Final Verdict: NKOTB does it right, they always have in my opinion. In past blogs I have talked about the cruise. I would say if given the chance to only do one, I would always chose the VIP at one of their concerts. They are all such nice guys, the personal interaction you have with them is just second to none in my opinion. I have loved them since I was 15 years old and still love them today. As with a lot of other blogs I have done on other artists the VIP staff can either make or break your experience. In Raleigh it was totally fantastic, in Charlotte it was a poor experience the way they handled check in, the groups, not caring when several organized groups of 10 were split up.

Suggestion: Please switch this group of 10 to groups of 5! It would take away the one constant stress when doing your VIP’s. It might actually go faster because you don’t have to spend an hour trying to get a group of 10 and make 10 people happy who they are standing next to.

Fun concert wear!

Bebe: http://www.bebe.com/

Nordstrom: http://shop.nordstrom.com/

White House Black Market: https://www.whitehouseblackmarket.com/store/

Coach: http://www.coach.com/shop/women-wristlets

Until Next Time,

Xoxo

Heather

June 25, 2017

Entertainment Blog

Ideal Meet & Greet/Photo Op

If I could sit down with celebrity VIP teams…

This is a topic I have been thinking about for the last few years. It’s part of the reason for starting this blog. I never want this page to be a negative place but, rather somewhere to share information, experiences, value etc. If I could sit down with artist’s and their management teams to give them insight into what fans feel are best VIP practices this is what I would say:

Artists should keep their commitments. It’s one of the things that I think a pop star and his team did wrong earlier this year. If they didn’t want to do meet and greets anymore that’s fine but, finish the ones that you had committed to, implement rules to meet your needs in the interim and have your team enforce them but, respect that a good portion of your VIP attendees often are paying to travel for the experience.

Don’t do photo assembly lines. I truly wish all artists that did meet and greets would commit to an hour or so of their time depending on the #’s and do it right, treat each person like a human being, say hello, ask their name, ask where they are from (stars may be shocked how far some will travel to see them), have a genuine interaction, then take the photo. Let’s face it these meet and greets, photo ops, fan trips cost a large sum of money, show the fans you value and respect their time and money by giving them an interaction. When an artist’s team brags that they did 300 pictures in 16 minutes that truly is disappointing vs a recent event I was at they had about 200 people and they devoted a solid hour or more, it wasn’t rushed and everyone that walked out after was so happy, felt so special and most of all valued.

Make the interactions private. What I have been seeing quite a bit lately is a curtain box created and have thought that is such a great idea. You can step in, have your interaction and not have 200-300 people watching it. It helps with your nerves too, nobody wants to feel like they are in a fishbowl it also solves the issue of people taking photos of the entertainer/star as they approach. It will also help the genuine interaction because then they are not still speaking to the person ahead of you etc.

Make the rules clear, stick to them and let them know what will happen if they violate the rules. If you say don’t take your cell phones out and ask for a selfie and someone does don’t post the photo, if you say don’t hug, kiss and rub all over an artist and people do don’t post the photo. I would guarantee you would only have to enforce it once and word would travel. Too many fans will just take liberties, ignore the rules just to achieve their own objective and it truly does spoil the process for others in many cases and it’s disrespectful to the artist.

Post photos in a timely manner. The companies that have them posted same day or in 24 hours always get a WOW for service from me. VIP Nation events have been crushing it with this service the last year. All events I have gone to hosted by them they have been up during the show or the next day. It’s been nice to see many are getting them done quickly lately, people are always so excited to receive them so the faster the better.

Give organic genuine experiences. A few tours recently I have seen many people asking for kisses, hugs etc. You are putting the stars in an awkward position because if they say no then they can be looked at like they are being a jerk but, people have to realize in most cases you are a stranger or a familiar face in the crowd to the artist. Would you want a stranger walking up and asking you to kiss them, hug them etc.? It’s such a better experience when it happens organically and it’s something the artist initiates because it’s genuine and something they truly wanted to do. On the flip side though as the artist make an effort to say hello, ask someone’s name and go from there.

Please no gum or food in your mouth. I have a few photos with different entertainers with a wad of gum clearly seen in the pic and then recently had an experience where someone was eating a marshmallow. Again people pay a lot for these experiences, travel long distances and it’s just respectful not to have food/gum in your mouth and seen in the photos.

Respect the time of individuals paying for the VIP experience. Don’t make them arrive 2 hours ahead to just stand in line and don’t leave them in the various elements like extreme heat & cold. Be organized. Nobody likes to stand around waiting for hours.

For random interactions with stars I always like to see who puts in the extra effort with their fans. I can say after seeing it many times that Keith Urban is one of the best at this. Keith will stop and literally do selfies with 40 people and it takes maybe 10 minutes. Now in these random cases I think it’s fine to do a quick hello, photo and move on you are not paying for it.

I think the stars also need to be careful the way their team is representing them. At the softball game at CMA fest one of the entertainer’s boyfriend’s came out where fans were lined up after the game and was telling a guy to hurry up and have her car pulled around because she didn’t want to stop for fans. Another country star I saw three times at CMA fest once on the pink carpet, at Fan Fair X and then out and about and he could not be bothered to take a photo or have an interaction but as soon as a TV camera was on him he changed right away. I personally will not spend my money, pay to travel, attend a concert of anyone that shows such disregard for fans. It’s all in how the situation is handled. Like I said in my CMA Fest blog from Day 3 instead of responding “NAH” to someone, say sorry not today. Treat people like human beings and they will in turn reward you by devoting their time and spending their hard earned money to support your career.

One star recently said it best you always have to treat each person special because that may be your 1 time ever to meet that person that has supported you and you don’t know what they had to do to be at that show, if they saved for 6 months, flew across the country etc. Whether it’s a 30 second selfie interaction or a paid meet and greet it’s your chance to make and leave an impression both on the fan and star’s end. I will always support the ones that care and truly get it because that adds value to the experience. I also feel we all have to treat them respectfully.

I would love to hear more thoughts on this from those that read the blog…

Until next time,

Xoxoxo

Heather

August 30, 2016