How Agent 86 helped turn the Heineken Open into a complete summer experience – managing the event from concept and sponsor integration through to hospitality, entertainment and live delivery.

By Agent 86 Experiences

The tennis may be the reason people buy a ticket, but it is not the only reason they remember the day.

A successful sporting event is a live ecosystem. The competition, sponsor promise, hospitality, food and beverage, entertainment, guest movement and venue atmosphere all need to work together. If one element feels disconnected, the event becomes a collection of parts. When everything is designed as one experience, the sport gains an energy that reaches well beyond centre court.

The Heineken Open is a foundational project in Petrina Maxwell’s and Agent 86’s event portfolio that demonstrates capability that remains central to A86 today: take responsibility for the complete experience, understand what the audience and commercial partners need, and deliver every visible and invisible detail to a professional standard.

The assignment was bigger than running a tennis tournament. It was to build a premium sporting occasion with its own place in Auckland’s summer.

The brief: create a sporting event people wanted to experience

The Heineken Open needed to operate as both an international tennis event and an important sponsorship platform for the Heineken brand in New Zealand.

For spectators, it needed to offer more than a seat and a match schedule. For corporate guests, it needed polished hospitality worthy of the occasion. For sponsors, it needed to translate brand personality into real environments and interactions. And for event stakeholders, every part needed to function reliably across six busy days and more than 35,000 spectators.

The role for Agent 86 was end-to-end: shape the experience, build the event environment, bring the commercial partnerships to life, and manage the many suppliers, guests, and operational details required to make the tournament feel effortless.

Turning sponsorship into an experience

Strong sponsorship is not simply a logo placed around a venue. It should change how the event feels and give the audience a meaningful way to experience the brand.

Agent 86 worked from Heineken’s positioning to create an event environment that felt distinctive, social and premium. The Heineken Summer House became a recognisable hospitality destination within the tournament. Alongside it, the Vodafone Global Cafe broadened the experience with a venue designed for both corporate guests and the public.

The Avenue cafe strip added another layer to the venue, giving spectators places to gather, eat, drink and stay engaged between matches. Entertainment, hospitality and brand activations were designed as part of the same guest journey rather than treated as separate additions.

That approach allowed Heineken’s presence to feel embedded in the event. The brand was not interrupting the tennis; it was helping create the atmosphere around it.

End-to-end means owning the pressure as well as the idea

Sporting events are unforgiving delivery environments. The public arrival time does not move because a supplier is late. Broadcast and match schedules do not wait for finishing touches. Weather, venue constraints and live audience movement can force decisions in real time.

The Heineken Open also followed another major tournament at the same venue. The changeover left a 24-hour window to transform the site – effectively delivering six months of planning in one tightly controlled day.

That is where creative event leadership becomes operational leadership. Concepts need to be practical. Supplier teams need clear direction. Sponsor assets, hospitality spaces, public areas, catering, entertainment and technical requirements must come together in the correct sequence. The event team needs to stay calm, make decisions quickly and protect the guest experience throughout.

Agent 86 managed that complete picture. The same attention was applied to the bold public-facing ideas and to the less visible coordination that allowed them to work.

A new experience every year – without losing the event’s identity

Repeat events have a particular creative challenge. Guests want the familiarity of a recognised occasion, but they also expect a reason to return.

The solution was not to reinvent the tournament for novelty’s sake. It was to keep the central event identity strong while introducing new flavour, atmosphere and points of discovery around it. Each edition could feel fresh without becoming unrecognisable.

That balance helped the Heineken Open develop into a respected international sporting event and an established part of Auckland’s summer. The tennis remained the hero. The experience around it gave people more reasons to arrive early, stay longer and remember how the event made them feel.

Agent 86 was able to conceptualise and then deliver on our vision for Heineken’s presence and brand experience at the event. Ron Curteis  |  Group Brand Manager – Premium Brands, DB Breweries

The result: a brand showcase with genuine audience appeal

The Heineken Open became a successful showcase for both international tennis and the Heineken brand.

Corporate guests experienced a premium hospitality environment. Public spectators gained more ways to enjoy the venue beyond the match itself. Sponsors were integrated into a cohesive event rather than added at the edges. Across six days, the tournament delivered the atmosphere, audience engagement and brand presence expected of a significant sporting and sponsorship property.

The client feedback was equally direct: Agent 86’s attention to detail, people management and delivery created a brand showcase described as fantastic at New Zealand’s premier international sporting event.

Why this work still matters

The Heineken Open proves that great event management does not become irrelevant with time.

The platforms change. Sponsor expectations evolve. Technology becomes more sophisticated. The fundamentals remain: understand the commercial purpose, design for the audience, make the brand part of the experience, coordinate every contributor, and remain composed when the live environment demands an answer.

Those are not archive skills. They are the same capabilities clients need when entrusting Agent 86 with a sporting event, brand activation, or high-profile hospitality program today.

A sporting event should perform on every level

The scoreline will always matter. So will everything happening around it.

A86 approaches sporting events as complete experiences: places where fans, guests, sponsors, stakeholders and the host brand should each understand why the event is worth being part of.

That requires creative thinking, commercial awareness and end-to-end control. It means designing the big moments, managing the small ones and ensuring the event feels coherent from the first arrival to the final presentation.

The Heineken Open proved that capability at scale. It remains part of the A86 story because it shows what happens when an event partner looks beyond the court and takes responsibility for the whole experience.

Planning a sporting event, sponsor experience, or premium hospitality program? Talk to Agent 86 about designing and delivering the complete experience.