Heineken 0.0 · LePub New York · August 2026
A ticket is valuable until the match begins. After that, it becomes a sentimental keepsake, unless it admits you to watch Serena Williams play. Heineken 0.0’s Second Serve Tickets transforms tickets from Serena’s previous US Open appearances into opportunities to return to the tournament. Old admission becomes new eligibility. Past fandom gets another chance to serve.
Challenge
Serena Williams' US Open career has inspired countless highlights and retrospectives. Heineken wanted to celebrate that history without simply replaying it, extending its Fans Have More Friends platform by uniting supporters through shared memories rather than placing the brand beside a famous name. The answer lay in something fans preserved.
Strategy
Sports tickets lose their practical value when an event ends, but their emotional value can increase over time. Fans preserve them for nostalgic reasons, and the ticket becomes their memento of participation in a little bit of sporting history. Rather than manufacturing a new symbol of Serena fandom, Heineken revalued one that already existed. The strategy was to turn preserved tickets into eligibility for another US Open experience, rewarding devotion demonstrated years before any incentive was offered.
Execution
Fans with tickets from Serena's previous US Open appearances could upload a photograph and share the memory connected to the match. Selected entrants would attend the 2026 tournament as guests in the Heineken Suite at Arthur Ashe Stadium. The launch film combined Serena archive footage with ticket-inspired illustrations. Limited-edition Heineken 0.0 cans based on her six championship victories created new collectables for current attendees. Even the name completes the idea: the old ticket, and potentially its owner, receives a second serve.
Campaigns That Used Similar Tactics
Nostalgia Commerce: reactivating an expired object
Deals Stuck in Time — McDonald's returned to historical outdoor adverts preserved in Google Street View and made their original prices redeemable.
BuzzCodes — Volkswagen turned licence plates found on VW vehicles in decades of films and television into contemporary promotional codes.
Back Market Refurbished Tweets — Back Market revived celebrities' old tweets about coveted technology to make refurbished versions desirable again.
Recognise and Reward Devotion: valuing the evidence fans kept
Pack Yer Bags — Yorkshire Tea celebrated (with a banger) young people whose devotion to the brand extended to taking its teabags abroad.
French Fry Day — McCain treated fans' enthusiasm for chips as something worthy of its own cultural celebration.
All Hail Gravy — KFC elevated an unusually passionate love of gravy into the defining behaviour of its fan community.
The Question That Could Get You Here
What piece of Serena’s US Open history could give fans the chance to become part of it again?
