Michelob Ultra is giving select New York bartenders limited-edition bottle openers containing pieces of the Knicks' 2026 NBA Finals court, as the Anheuser-Busch brand rolls out a multi-channel campaign across all five boroughs. The push celebrates a championship 53 years in the making, less than a week before the new NBA season tips off.

The campaign, created with BBDO, builds on Michelob Ultra's role in the team's summer championship celebration. Knicks legends Earl Monroe and John Wallace will surprise the bartenders and thank them for their part in the championship run.

Fans who want the openers can enter to win them through Michelob Ultra's Superior Access platform, starting October 19.

What else is launching?

The campaign spans several channels and formats:

• A new film from Wieden + Kennedy, Beer of Champions, debuts October 20 during the Knicks' opening game on NBC, celebrating the championship run ahead of the banner-raising at Madison Square Garden.
• Limited-edition New York Knicks cans and aluminum bottles carry the team logo and the NBA Championship trophy, with Michelob Ultra's red ribbon redesigned as a championship banner.
• Out-of-home placements will light up prominent locations across the city, including around Madison Square Garden, Penn Station and Times Square.

The out-of-home footprint puts the celebration in front of commuters and fans in Manhattan's highest-traffic corridors. Two agencies, BBDO and Wieden + Kennedy, share the creative load.

How does this fit the brand's NBA strategy?

Michelob Ultra is the NBA's official global beer partner, and the Knicks campaign works as a local accompaniment to the brand's league-wide activity. That broader effort now includes the NBA's newly unveiled court designs for all 30 teams, which feature Michelob Ultra ad placements at the end of the court for the in-season tournament, the Emirates NBA Cup.

In plain terms: one championship, one city, but ad placements on 30 courts nationwide. The Knicks win gives Michelob Ultra a locally rooted story to anchor a much larger season-long investment.

The campaign's timing is deliberate. It launches in the days between a historic title and opening night, when fan attention in the New York market peaks, and it keeps the brand present from the banner-raising through the Emirates NBA Cup's court-level inventory.