By Luke Fitzpatrick, Head of Digital at Assembled Media
In an industry that prides itself on being forward-thinking and dynamic, the way media agencies operate hasn’t kept up. Media is one of the fastest-moving sectors in the world. New platforms, new formats, new data tools – every week, there’s something new to learn, test, or master. We’ve built entire careers on adapting to change.
Eighteen years ago, my first job in media involved filling out a three-part booking form.
One copy went to the client, one to finance, and one stayed with us. Each form was printed with carbon copy paper and filed carefully in separate filing cabinets. It was slow, manual, and paper-heavy, but it worked… for the time.
Luke Fitzpatrick
Today, we don’t use carbon paper and filing cabinets; we use Excel and a Google Drive.
But here’s the catch – we’re still doing the same thing, it’s just on a screen now. Instead of carbon copies, we have three versions of the same spreadsheet saved into different folders. The digital world makes it look new and exciting. But at its core, it’s just admin with Wi-Fi.
We’re surrounded by innovation and yet, within our own walls, we’re still holding onto outdated ways of working. We’re stuck with processes that have been repackaged but fundamentally haven’t changed. Digital mimicry is not revolutionary.
We’ve moved from:
• Faxed briefs to emailed PDFs
• Printed post-campaign reports to templated PowerPoint slides
• Hand-filled forms to forms with Excel formulas
And this isn’t just a quirk of legacy agencies – it’s everywhere.
It feels modern. But it’s not transformation, it’s digitised process. We’re repeating old steps using new tools, rather than asking whether those steps are even needed anymore.
What does real innovation look like?
Real innovation asks why, not just how.
Before we digitise a workflow, we need to stop and ask:
• Why do we still create 30-page post-campaign reports no one reads?
• Why do we reformat every media plan from scratch? Why is it even in Excel?
• Why are we chasing people for data that platforms already have, creating trackers and having data copied and pasted over and over again?
We need to stop accepting legacy process as gospel. Instead, we should be dismantling it.
AI is not the answer, but it is a tool
There’s no question that AI is going to reshape our industry. But we need to be honest about what it is and what it isn’t. AI won’t fix broken process. If we feed in inefficient workflows, all we’ll get is faster inefficiency.
Used well, AI has the power to:
• Automate repetitive tasks
• Summarise complex data
• Scale content with speed
• Surface insights that would otherwise be missed
But it can only do this if we’re bold enough to re-engineer what we are trying to do in the first place. The agencies that succeed won’t be the ones who “use AI”. They’ll be the ones who use it intentionally, to free up human time for thinking, not formatting. AI won’t create innovation, but it will allow us as humans the time and space to do so.
The opportunity in front of us
This isn’t a criticism of the people in agencies. It’s a call to action. Agencies are full of smart, driven, creative thinkers, but most are stuck using 2010 workflows inside a 2025 world. And it’s not because of a lack of ambition. It’s because too many agencies and agency leaders treat tech as an upgrade, not an opportunity to rewire.
At Assembled Media, we’re choosing a different path. We’re building internal products like Assembled View, not as another dashboard, but as a new way of working. One that removes friction, adds value, and turns media from a task list into a live engine of client growth.
We’re not trying to bolt new tools into old systems. We’re building new systems entirely.
We are redesigning the agency model
Here’s the exciting part… We don’t have to wait for permission.
No one is stopping us from changing how agencies work – not clients, not platforms, not partners. The next generation of media agencies won’t just be defined by the media they buy. They’ll be defined by how they operate, and how fast they can evolve.
We have the talent. We have the tools. Now we just need the mindset. Because if we really are an industry that thrives on innovation, it’s time we started behaving like one.
Top image: Liam Fitzpatrick