Suits & Sneakers presents: “The Death of Sponsorship” with Greg Walsh

Suits & Sneakers hosts several events each month in Joburg, each featuring a different guest and theme. The idea is to create a space for ongoing learning that helps you broaden your thinking in a fast-changing world. This event will be hosted on the evening of Tuesday, 26 May, at The Tryst in Kramerville.

WHAT IS THIS EVENT ALL ABOUT?

For decades, the marketing world has operated on a simple, expensive assumption: if you put your logo on enough stages and buy enough naming rights, people will care. This belief has fueled a global sponsorship machine worth over $100 billion, yet the reality on the ground has shifted. In a world of collapsing attention and digital saturation, the "illusion of attention" is no longer enough to actually matter to a consumer.

On Tuesday, 26 May, Greg Walsh joins us to discuss "The Death of Sponsorship" which is a deep dive into why traditional sponsorship is fractured and increasingly ineffective. Greg pulls back the curtain on the world of live experiences and culture to show that while sponsorship looks bigger than ever on the surface, it is dying a quiet death underneath.

Instead of chasing transactional placements, Greg makes the case for the "experience economy." This is a shift toward true partnerships and shared outcomes where people don't want to be marketed to; they want to feel a sense of belonging. We are going to unpack the mechanics of building "goosebump moments" and why brands that actively shape events, rather than just showing up at them, are the only ones that will survive this transition.

This is not a feel-good marketing talk. It is a necessary recalibration for brand builders, founders, and CMOs. Whether you are managing billion dollar deals or trying to find a local edge, this talk provides a blueprint for what actually works when the old rules of attention no longer apply. You will walk away with a new understanding of how to move beyond the transactional and start building value where everyone wins, or no one does.

MORE ABOUT GREG WALSH

Greg Walsh is the Founder and CEO of G&G The Goosebumps Company, a pioneering experiential agency established in 2003 with a singular mission to give people an escape from the ordinary and help brands to become extraordinary.

For over two decades, Greg has been at the forefront of South Africa’s entertainment, marketing and live experience industries, producing some of the country’s most iconic large scale events and cultural moments. Under his leadership, G&G has delivered globally recognised productions including Rage Festival, Sensation, and Armin Only Intense by Armin van Buuren, as well as major brand led platforms such as the BMW M Festival and the Samsung Galaxy Experience.

More recently, Greg has spearheaded the creation of premium, genre defining experiences including The Luxurious Marble Circus, Shimza and Friends, and the Magical Marble Family Fest, each designed to blur the line between spectacle, storytelling and strategic brand immersion. An entrepreneur with more than 24 years of experience across entertainment, marketing and advertising, Greg leads a high performance team of 26 creative strategists, producers and cultural architects. Together, they build large scale platforms where fandom, commerce and culture intersect.

Greg is deeply committed to the belief that we are living in the experience economy, where attention is earned through emotion and loyalty is built through unforgettable moments. His work focuses on helping brands transcend traditional advertising by embedding themselves into culturally relevant, goosebump inducing experiences that resonate long after the lights go down.

With several ambitious new concepts on the horizon, Greg continues to push the boundaries of live entertainment and brand integration, crafting experiences that do not just entertain audiences, but transform them.

SPONSORS & PARTNERS

This Suits & Sneakers event is proudly brought to you by EasyEquities, Evolv Outdoor, SA Future Trust, and the many small business owners that are Suits & Sneakers members. Together, we have created a support structure for small business owners and our collective goal is to grow the economy, while lowering unemployment. More about that on the night.