A ticket from a major sporting moment often outlives the event itself. It remains pinned to a wall, stored in an album or forgotten in a drawer, as a small piece of proof that its owner was present when history was being made. Heineken 0.0 is now giving such tickets a new function: turning them back into admission to the US Open.
The Second Serve Tickets activation, developed by agency LePub New York, invites fans of Serena Williams to find tickets from any of her previous appearances at the New York Grand Slam tournament. A photograph of the preserved ticket must be submitted together with a personal memory connected to that match through heineken.com/secondservetickets.
The most devoted among them will have an opportunity to return to the place where the memory was created. Selected fans will be invited to the exclusive Heineken suite at Arthur Ashe Stadium during the 2026 US Open, where old stories will continue among people who share the same kind of sporting devotion.
The idea is an extension of Heineken’s Fans Have More Friends communications platform, based on the premise that supporting the same team or athlete makes it easier to form new connections. The campaign was created in partnership with Serena Williams, winner of 23 Grand Slam titles and global ambassador for Heineken 0.0, with production by Dolsten & Co.
Williams has won the US Open six times, and the ticket designs from those championship tournaments will now receive another edition. From August 24, tournament visitors will be able to purchase a limited series of Heineken 0.0 cans inspired by the tickets from her six championship appearances. The cans will be available exclusively at the 2026 US Open, while supplies last.
For Jim Curtis, chief creative officer at LePub New York, the strength of the idea lies in the objects fans preserve for years precisely because they represent more than a piece of paper and a seat in the stands. The activation takes them out of private collections and uses them as a criterion for bringing together audiences who followed Williams through different stages of her career.
Maggie Timoney, chief executive officer of HEINEKEN USA, connected the project with the role shared fandom plays in creating new relationships, as well as with the growing demand for non-alcoholic options at sporting events. According to the company, the popularity of Heineken 0.0 at the US Open has risen sharply over the past two years, with supplies selling out during the tournament.
Someone will therefore enter Arthur Ashe Stadium this August carrying a ticket that is ten or twenty years old, perhaps faded, folded or still attached to an album page. Heineken 0.0 is not asking fans to prove how well they know Serena Williams’ statistics. It is enough to show that they were there and explain why they still keep that ticket.
