When a marketing blitz is wonderfully executed, it deserves some attention — so here it is.

Ever since Seattle was awarded an NHL team in 2018, people have been waiting anxiously for the team’s name. It was expected to come earlier this year, but the pandemic delayed the announcement until last week. The ownership group teased the unveil a day before with a video depicting fishermen in stormy seas who caught something big — a red goal light.

Then, the big reveal: Seattle’s new NHL team will be known as the Seattle Kraken, and they’ll be wearing some pretty spiffy lookin’ gear.

What on earth is a “kraken”, I can hear you saying? It’s a mythical, giant squid-like sea monster. The line “release the kraken!” was spoken by Liam Neeson’s character in the dreadful movie The Clash of the Titans in 2010. No doubt we’ll be hearing that a lot.

The name itself is very offbeat, which means “risky” in marketing terms. Most people probably have no clue what a “kraken” is, and those who do will enjoy calling Seattle fans “krak-heads” who watch their team in the “krak-house”. But that’s why the ownership group deserves so much praise — the name is odd, it’s creative, it stands out, and it’s risky. There were many reasons not to call the team Kraken, yet they did it anyway.

The unveil triggered frenzied buying of Kraken merchandise, which is expected to continue in the lead up to the team finally hitting the ice in the fall of 2021. I might even pick up something for myself, despite the fact I’m a diehard fan of a team that will likely will be Seattle’s biggest rival.

The big unveil is below.