As host of the inaugural AdMonsters Sell Side Summit, Albert Thompson, Managing Director of Digital Innovation at Walton Isaacson, will bring his expertise in media strategy, buyer perspectives, and disruptive thinking to help industry leaders thrive in digital advertising.
For Albert Thompson, intellectual curiosity is essential above all else. As the Managing Director of Digital Innovation at Walton Isaacson, he powers his curiosity by treating himself as a constantly evolving digital good.
“I’m never finished,” said Thompson. “TV’s advancements expire in a month. A cell phone is good for 30 days. But I treat myself like I could disrupt myself every day. If I have a thought, I find a better one to build on it.”
Thompson’s curiosity drives him to advance industry conversations. He says this is because the speed of information is daunting, and those who don’t disrupt how they think will never keep pace and remain complacent.
Thompson will bring his signature curiosity to the inaugural Sell Side Summit: Digital Strategy & Platform Solutions for Media, Publishers & Ad Networks in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, March 9-11, 2025. He’ll serve as host, guiding the program with his industry expertise and dynamic presence.
Realizing an Advertising Career From an Early Age
Thompson says he’s one of those rare people who didn’t just stumble into advertising but knew he wanted to be part of the industry during his junior year of high school. He’s always been self-directed, and advertising spoke to him because it allows for a level of creative thinking. Another reason for going into advertising? “It’s the only business where you can legally gain an advantage over a competitor,” he said.
Thompson began his career in the early 2000s when his first clients were BET.com and USAToday.com—back when the industry saw online entities as outliers. From there, he built a more than twenty-year career in advertising and marketing, spanning interactive agencies, multicultural marketing, and public affairs. His expertise is primarily in strategy, and he’s worked in account, project, and creative management.
“I’ve been buying media my entire career,” said Thompson. “That’s why I have context for this particular Summit. I understand the buyer’s mindset.”
The Influence of Gratitude and Service
For nearly 17 years, Thompson has been a driving force at Walton Isaacson, leading brand marketing efforts for Lexus, White Memorial, Verizon Wireless, Harrah’s Casino, Toyota, and Unilever. His industry longevity comes from a passionate pursuit of his work.
As a child, Thompson’s father told him, “If you enjoy what you do, you will be amongst the one percent.” That advice stuck with him.
“Finding what you love to do is powerful and rare,” said Thompson. “It makes it easier to stay in places for 16-plus years because you love the business, the pursuit, and the opportunity to participate in it.”
Thompson roots this mindset in gratitude. On his LinkedIn profile, he says gratitude is what he values deeply in business. He’s grateful that he enjoys what he does and has surrounded himself with good people and enterprises. Thompson believes his parents may have shaped this perspective: his mother, a kindergarten teacher with a master’s degree, and his father, a retired physician.
“My parents were service people. So, I have the service acumen to service the space. When people ask me what I’m ultimately trying to do, I say I’m trying to elevate the space and the people around me, and that comes from a place of gratitude.”
A New Event Name and Format for a New Way of Thinking
This year, the AdMonsters Publisher Forum will evolve into the Sell Side Summit, reflecting a more strategic approach to addressing the industry’s core needs. Thompson believes the change makes sense and will help bring different entities into the conversation.
“The sell-side nomenclature expands the aperture,” said Thompson. “We’ve entered a world where one isn’t selling something published by them as an institution. It could be a third party or a post by an AI engine. Now, it’s not an influencer who creates. It’s just a creator. So everyone and every entity is about to be a creative enterprise for which they have to merchandise back or monetize what they created.”
With the theme “Cracking the Buyer’s Code,” the Summit shifts to buyer perspectives from brands, agencies, and advertisers to give sellers actionable insights. According to Thompson, a missing part of the buyers’ code conversation is that the industry must focus on selling based on what will transact.
“Publishers need to establish a correlation between leadership consumption and purchase consumption. People who read this buy that. Cause that’s all a brand cares about,” said Thomspon.
Having spent much of his career studying the CMO suite, Thompson believes the CMO of the brand you’re selling to matters most. He says it’s because that’s everybody’s boss, and the boss’s challenge will be yours.
“The CMO is the check writer for every media outlet and agency. I always speak the language of the check writer,“ said Thompson. “And when I looked at the sell side, part of their Achilles heels was that they used a different language. You must use the language of the people who are almost your investors and who keep the business running.”