How the Seattle Kraken Built a Brand Before Their First Game

The owners of Seattle’s new National Hockey League franchise wanted to release the Kraken. But the pandemic demanded that the Kraken stay home, stream some shows and order delivery. It’s hard enough to build a new professional sports franchise, fan base and brand under normal circumstances. The Seattle Kraken did so amid Covid-19 and a citywide lockdown. The lessons learned by the Kraken's behind-the-scenes team about marketing, merchandising and social media will make it easier for the next sports franchise that launches with no players, events or even a home arena. “I think it was surreal. … That would probably be the word,” said Katie Townsend, the Seattle Kraken’s svp of marketing and communications. “It's certainly made for a different year than we had imagined.” Move Over, Vegas Golden Knights: Here Come the Buffalo Sabres Social distance and responsibility After the NHL awarded Seattle a team in 2018, and the new organization selected its Seattle Kraken branding in late 2019, Townsend thought she and her team would simply execute their plan. They’d go out into the city, flood it with merchandise and images, and hold lots of events to meet fans and season ticketholders. Then in January 2020, a man in Snohomish, Washington tested positive for the virus. About a month later, Seattle’s home county, King County, reported the nation’s first Covid-19 death. In mid-March, Seattle entered a lockdown that would last until June. Through July 2021, King County reported 117,000 Covid cases and nearly 1,700 deaths. Amid all of that, Townsend said her nameless, faceless, playerless hockey team wondered how to react and where it fit in. Seattle’s Seahawks football team, Mariners baseball team, Storm women’s basketball team and both Sounders and Reign soccer teams pointed the way. “At the very start of the pandemic, even though we weren't playing games, we joined a call with the other Seattle sports teams and the local public health officials, just so that we're in lockstep that we didn't announce in-person seat selection at a time when someone's canceling a game,” she said. Sports should provide light relief and it should be fun, but how do we do that?Katie Townsend, svp of marketing, Seattle Kraken Some of the team’s first interactions with fans weren’t about hockey, but social media posts about masks and vaccines. Working with Seattle Public Health, Washington’s state secretary of health, the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and team health partner Virginia Mason Franciscan Health, the Kraken worked on its messaging and practiced social distancing. It set up Covid resource pages on its site, hired staff via Zoom interviews and met its first fans through digital events. Following the Mariners’ example, the Kraken also set up vaccination clinics. However, after George Floyd was murdered by a Minneapolis police officer in May 2020, Townsend said the team had to reassess its position in the city. With a portion of Seattle turned into an autonomous zone by protesters seeking social justice, Townsend and company attempted to connect with the community without appearing opportunistic. It linked up Youth Care, a group that aims to help Seattle’s young homeless population, and donated to Seattle’s food vouchers program and to arts groups surrounding its not-yet-completed arena in Seattle Center. Most importantly, the Seattle Kraken listened to fans. “Sports should provide light relief and it should be fun, but how do we do that, when do we do that, when do we say nothing, and when do we offer help?” Townsend said. Arizona Coyotes’ New Head of Marketing Wants to Build a Brand Beyond Hockey Controlling the narrative The team identity had to encompass all of the above before Townsend and her colleagues could say what that identity was. The “Seattle Kraken” only existed in the organization’s minds until July 23, 2020, and somehow didn’t leak until it was announced during a five-hour streaming event. An elaborate backstory, which still lives at SeattleKrakenHockey.com, linked the city’s nautical heritage, giant Puget Sound octopus, and the 1917 Stanley Cup Champion Seattle Metropolitans that had their 1919 title hopes dashed by the Spanish flu pandemic. With the Kraken brand launched but social distancing measures in place, the organization leaned heavily on merchandise. A Kraken flagship store opened last August in Seattle to a Covid-limited number of shoppers. Both the merchandise and its backstory appeared on ESPN and in Sports Business Journal. Despite its challenges, within the first month, the Seattle Kraken had sold the most merchandise of any expansion team in NHL history. Roughly 40% of Kraken jerseys were sold outside of the team’s home state. The Kraken’s social media staff could finally move on from memes and Bachelorette references to videos of local celebrities like Netflix’s To All the Boys star Lana Condor and team announcer Everett Fitzhugh in Kraken gear. https://twitter.com/TheVoiceFitz/status/1400629699059994624 https://twitter.com/seattlekraken/status/1286365355925856256?lang=en However, Townsend and her staff still had a season ticket dilemma. They’d built events and video tutorials around seat selection before pulling them when the pandemic began. The team originally offered three- and five-year terms for season tickets, but began promoting one-year and half-year terms to accommodate a shaky economy. While in-person seat selection was still available, Zoom conversations with sales representatives became a more inclusive option. The result: 32,000 depositors divvying up fewer than 17,500 seats per home game. “You could get to know your rep, they would tell you stories, and our fans would tell us an amazing story like, ‘Oh, by the way, I was a goalkeeper for the Japanese women's hockey team,’” Townshend said. As a bit of normalcy returned, the Kraken held an expansion draft event on July 21 in Seattle’s Gas Works Park. It drew fans and local celebrities including former Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch and Storm Olympic gold medalist Sue Bird. The Kraken also scheduled their first home game against Vancouver at Climate Pledge Arena on Oct. 23. For Townsend, that means more brand-building efforts like reminding fans that each game ticket is also a free ticket for bus, light-rail and monorail rides to minimize arena traffic. It’s also a reminder that a team, brand and fanbase born during a pandemic has to be built to survive it. “We're now watching and learning and looking at what other buildings and other states do, working with our local public health officials on what it looks like in October and how the delta variant changes things,” she said. “Our focus is to get that right, both for our fan base and for our community.“ LA Rams Name Live Event Marketing Veteran Kathryn Kai-ling Frederick CMO as Fans Return

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How the NHL's Seattle Kraken Built a Brand Before Playing Their First Game

The hockey league's newest franchise turned to technology and storytelling

Jason Notte

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Jason Notte