Marketing is as much a part of the Anaheim Ducks as the ice they skate on. After all, they are one of the few sports teams named after a brand—the “Mighty Ducks” movie franchise of former team owner Disney.

When it came time for a brand refresh, the 31-year-old NHL franchise paid homage to its Disney-era origins and the character of its Orange County home—along with a little bit of old-time hockey mayhem.

“We’re creating something that our fans can show their true grit, the spirit of Orange County, and the embodiment of what Anaheim Ducks fandom really is. It’s something our fans have really enjoyed and come to love,” Merit Tully, chief marketing officer of the Anaheim Ducks, said on the latest edition of Ad Age’s Marketer’s Brief podcast.

Also read: Why the NHL was a 2024 Marketer of the Year

Teams throughout sports have moved in recent years to brand themselves around the tribe of their fans. The Ducks call theirs “Orange Country.” Orange County and neighboring Riverside County together are the size of a top-10 U.S. market with about 5 million people, Tully said. It is a substantial audience that’s underserved for pro sports. “We’ve got an opportunity to really lean in where other professional sports organizations just haven’t taken the opportunity. And we found that to be really great for us so far,” Tully said.

A uniform rebrand—which took effect at the beginning of the 2024-25 season—outfits the Ducks for the first time in orange sweaters while reviving the “Wild Wing” mask logo that was last used regularly in the 2005-06 season. The duck is slightly less cartoony and a just little more mean than the original, which was based on artwork from “The Mighty Ducks” movie franchise. The Walt Disney Co., which produced those movies, owned the Ducks (then known as “The Mighty Ducks of Anaheim”) from their founding in 1993 until selling to current owners Henry and Susan Samueli in 2005.

The Samuelis had retired the Disney look as part of an effort to be taken a little more seriously as a hockey club—a year later, in 2007, the Ducks won their first and only Stanley Cup.

Battery, the Ducks’ creative agency, brought the uniform rebrand to life including orange helmets, an NHL first. Orange was previously a secondary Ducks color, but insisted upon by the Samuelis. Their daughter, designer Jillian Reddin, was instrumental in the design, Tully said.

Sports fans can be notoriously difficult to please when it comes to new looks, but the Ducks’ new look garnered widespread praise.

Battery has also infused the Ducks with a grimly humorous brand voice that not unlike a hockey enforcer, takes prideful glee in the game’s hard hits. A recent parody ad imagined the Ducks selling the lost teeth of their opponents as toys. A brand film introducing the new look contrasts the sunshine of Orange County with the ferocity of the hockey in the Honda Center. “Behind every pretty façade,” it says, “there’s an ugly duck ready to defend its nation.”

With an eye on becoming a “generational” franchise, the Ducks are working to establish ties with other local institutions, Tully said. A collaboration with the Orange County-based skate shoe brand Vans on a collection of three Ducks-themed sneakers was lauded by the NHL. The team also designated a new arena “goal” song this year—“Coming to You” by the Garden Grove, California-based punk legends, the Offspring, who happen also to be fans.

“We still have a long way to go to really create the kind of momentum beyond behind the franchise that ultimately will be there in the decades to come,” Tully said. “We have to continually remind ourselves that while hockey’s been around for over a century, we’re 30 years old, and while that’s a good amount of time in a market, it’s going to be a while before it’s generational ... That’s going to take time.”