Is Slurpee’s Battle of the Bands Contest Sweet Enough?

I’m a sucker for a well-mixed Coke, mango and cherry Slurpee after a show or anytime the crave strikes, so I thought I’d share this Slurpee Battle of the Bands contest that wraps up today. And like all the other concert contests we’ve featured on Live Fix, this Slurpee contest needs a few more ingredients to make it even sweeter.

I’m excited to share this 7-Eleven Battle of the Bands contest because it’s another case of good things happening in three’s by giving us the chance to:

1) Wonder about the benefits and payoffs of “Battle of the Bands” contests

2) Explore a tasty live music concept and see if big brands can create better interactive concert experiences

3) Discover more funny stories of fans showing their love for bands with their sun-burned bodies at a live show

Who Really Wins the Battle of the Bands Contest?
It’s been fun to follow the Slurpee contest this Summer because I’ve always wondered about the “Battle of the Bands” concept. Here are a few questions I’ve been thinking about this summer:

• Does this Slurpee or this Ernie Ball BOTB contest, really improve the live music experience?
• Does competition make the live music experience better, or does it take away from the community of groove?
• Do BOTB contests help bands develop their live cops, get the necessary exposure and grow their fan-base?

Depending on how they are run and what the goal of the sponsor and promoter is, BOTB contests can do good things for everyone involved.

But since there’s such a heavy emphasis on “competition,” I think they don’t do much for connecting fans directly.

But again it depends on how the contest is presented and executed. There’s good contests and bad contests. And, unfortunately, you don’t know if a contest was worth it until you get involved in it.  So like paying money to see a band you know nothing about, BOTB are usually a gamble for everyone involved.

Is Slurpee Creating a Sweet & Innovative Contest?

That’s a question I’ve been asking myself ever since our look at ways to improve Lollapalooza. And as I’ve been following their contest this summer and it has a lot of great original content for fans to engage with like the blog, giveaways.

But I think the sponsors (Slurpee, 7-Eleven and Coca-Cola) can make it even better by creating an experience that takes us deeper into realizing how crucial our sense of taste is to our live music experiences.

This makes perfect sense, because we’re dealing with sponsors who are experts in creating extremely sweet drinks for fans, so why not explore our senses via a “flavor-based interactive live concert experience.”

I don’t have a complete blueprint for such an experience yet, but if they were able to create such an experience, it could allow fans to truly taste how much their taste buds and their love for live music are connected.

And like we’ve said before, when a brand takes the time to create a helpful, fun and educational experience, those positive emotions that a fan feels get associated with the brand.

And I would think that any sponsor would want fans to celebrate their brand and live music in the same slurp, swallow and gulp —  just like we love the excitement and pleasure of mixing Coke, Mango and Cherry to create our own custom Slurpees.

Take A Cue from “Survival” Reality Shows

Like the popular “survival” reality shows like The Colony, Survivor Man and Man Woman Wild entertain and teach viewers survival skills, Slurpee should create an interactive experience that explores how our sense of taste is crucial to our live music experience.  I’ve thought the same thing about Red Bull, too.

And with taste being one of the most important senses we use during the live music experience, there is a great opportunity for Slurpee and 7-Eleven to create an even more intimate and sensual connection with their audience’s sensory system by enhancing their most flavorful live music memories.

How? Why?

Well, for starters, our sense of smell and taste are linked together and the two have been known to be closely connected to our memory’s ability to instantly recall crucial moments in our lives.

So why not create an interactive experience that combines taste, live music and memories?

Seems like a no-brainer, right?

We’ll see what happens in the future. But now it’s time to take a look at the how fans are behaving and the contest info.

One Fan’s Sunburn Live Music Story

This next part is an excerpt from at band Q&A from the Slurpee Blog that tells a really funny story about one fan’s ultimate dedication to one of the final 12 bands Burning Tree. And yes, we’ve added it to our list of concert fan moments.

Slurpee: What’s your craziest fan story?

Dave: It has to be my buddy Chuck who came out from Colorado to watch us play. He’s a very very pale individual. When he came down here to Florida, he went to the beach wrote Burning Tree on his back in sun tan lotion and got burnt to a crisp. Then at the show, he took his shirt off and we were all super surprised!

Mike: He looked like the Japanese flag, all white and red.

Battle of the Bands Contest Info

Now that you’re up to speed here’s the contest info. Have fun watching the finale and let us know what you think about it in the comments below.

• Check out the finale live today (5pm PST/7pm CST) between the HOLLABACKS and Levi Ware, via 7-Eleven’s Facebook page and vote for your favorite band. Once you RSVP via the Facebook app, you can text BOTB to 711-711 and you’ll get updates about the event, too.

• The top band will receive the grand prize of $10,000 and a chance to record in-studio and be featured on Wolfgang’s Vault.