Avid Collective has come up with a solution to boost the efficiency of in-person media partnership conversations.
The format, called Collab Sessions, is the industry’s first curated collaboration meeting format designed to generate up to three times greater return on time invested in agency, advertiser and media partner engagement.
The launch follows a successful pilot program with FMCG-focused agency and media partner participants, testing whether a more structured, planning-led approach could materially improve the quality and timing of discussions.
“The issue isn’t the number of meetings, it’s the low percentage of genuinely useful minutes within them,” said Luke Spano, CEO of Avid Collective.
“Our research from surveying advertisers, agencies, and media owners shows that in traditional meeting formats only around 20–30% of time meaningfully contributes to live planning decisions. The rest is often fluff, repetition or conversations that are poorly timed. If we want to grow the media partnerships category, we have to increase the proportion of useful minutes, not just add more meetings.”
Avid’s recent Media Partnerships Demand survey found that 60% of media partners struggle to reach the right agency teams at the right time, while 73% say budgets are often locked before conversations even begin, limiting opportunities and reducing potential investment into media partnerships.
Participation in the Collab Sessions is not an open-invitation and is selectively curated around a defined strategic question, industry, audience, or planning moment to ensure relevance and maximise value on both sides.
Over 90 minutes, agency teams engage multiple relevant media partners in private, structured, one-to-one conversations, designed to generate strategic input and clarify where each partner can add value within the media plan.
Feedback from the pilot highlighted the format’s value and efficiency.
“It felt more considered and more relevant than typical meetings. The conversations were focused on real client problems, not just what each partner could sell off the shelf,” said Alex Fischer, Account Manager at JOY Agency.
Media partners have echoed the sentiment.
“The right stakeholders were prepped for high-level, insightful conversations rather than executional catch ups. It was a genuinely valuable way to engage agencies earlier in the planning cycle,” said Laina O’Donnell, Commercial Director at WOM Shopper Advocacy.
Collab Sessions form part of Avid’s mission to grow the media partnerships category by improving how collaboration happens across the ecosystem.
“Our goal is to double the size of investment flowing into media partnerships,” said Spano. “That doesn’t happen by redistributing the same meetings, it happens by creating better moments of collaboration upstream.”
Following the successful pilot, Avid is now rolling out Collab Sessions in Sydney, with virtual sessions available for interstate agency and advertiser teams.
Sessions will run throughout the year with participation selectively curated around key audiences, industries and active planning moments.
