Dex Deboree, Founder of Falkon Talks Sports Culture and Marketing

Note: This was recorded on March 5, 2020, before many of the events that occurred with COVID-19. I still believe this is relevant.

For the sports marketing savant Dexton Deboree -- Founder/Creative Director of Falkon, the branding agency focused on sports, culture and social impact -- 2020 represents a new sports marketing renaissance where movies can be brand marketing plays or broadcast ad campaigns roll out like a binge-worthy TV series. The key to modern sports marketing, as opposed to the past, is telling socially relevant stories.
 

Have a listen:

Case in point is Deboree’s latest branding effort for Nike Airmax shoes and Foot Locker. One spot features Skate Kitchen, the all-female New York City-based skateboard collective that was the subject of the acclaimed 2018 film that HBO is currently developing as a series. The second piece focuses Houston Rockets’ veteran Thabo Patrick Sefolosha, for which Deboree took the Swiss-born all-star away from the cheering arena crowds and onto the streets of Houston to play ball and get real with the team’s fans.
 
Both projects are currently rolling out on Nike and Footlocker’s website and social media channels.
Whereas most sports marketing tends to lean in hard on the “athlete-as-god” metaphors, Deboree -- director of the acclaimed documentary Unbanned: The Legend of AJ1 (now on Hulu) -- took the counterintuitive approach with this campaign by both focusing on the non-competitive, empowerment message of Skate Kitchen. And, even when working with a pro with mad skills like Sefolosha, Deboree humanizes him by showing the athlete playing street ball with fans at a neighborhood park.
 
“Both of these pieces highlight what’s driving the current renaissance in sports marketing that Nike is naturally leading,” Deboree says. “Today sports have no bias, no prejudice, no judgment at all. It has rules and forms and its only demand is that people just do it.”
 
From Deboree’s perspective, sports marketing has changed enormously in just the last few years. Players today have enormous control over their branding thanks to their own social media, and in this post-Kaepernick age, most aren’t inclined to stifle their opinions.
 
“These kinds of powerful and positive messages is what a brand like Nike is all about, especially when it’s carried through the vehicle of sports,” Deboree adds.

Born At The Intersection Of Advertising & Entertainment, Falkon goes beyond what’s NOW to boldly define what’s NEXT through work that focuses on Sports, Culture & Social Impact. https://www.falkoncontent.com