Mollie Cross
Sydney,NSW
Summary
Dynamic Senior Trading Manager with a passion for turning client challenges into high-performing media campaigns. Excel in negotiation, decision-making, and analytical thinking, leveraging these soft skills to navigate complex trading landscapes successfully and achieve targeted outcomes.
Overview
13
13
years of professional experience
Work History
Trading Manager and Senior Trading Manager
The Media Store
Sydney, NSW
04.2023 - Current
- Served as Agency Trading Lead, directly reporting commercials to CEO.
- Developed and executed strategies to generate revenue for TMS and their clients, generating over $400k incremental revenue in the first year.
- Led agency negotiations with direct media partners, maximising value for TMS while maintaining quality and cross-channel efficiency.
- Developed an agency hybridised planning approach, ensuring that data and insights from ATL channels pull through programmatic planning and implementation strategies.
- Supported client leads by leveraging market insights and relationships to identify and unlock partnership opportunities.
- Collaborating with the Head of Strategy to build audience, fusing market trends with strategic insights.
- Regularly contribute to new business pitches.
Senior Business Manager
Alchemy One
Sydney, NSW
10.2022 - 03.2023
- Served as primary liaison for Westfund Health Insurance, aligning service delivery with client needs.
- Developed targeted campaign strategies to address client challenges in competitive health insurance market.
- Lead client planning days, including category research deep dives, trends, and competitor media insights, the impact of pricing on new customer acquisitions, and the optimal channel strategy to reach new audiences.
- Created the agency's first live media plan, including predictive new customer forecasting functionality to optimally weight investment by channel to suit each campaign's goal.
- Streamline reporting to ensure all presentations deliver the utmost value to the client, minimising deployed agency head hours to maximise contact efficiency.
Investment Manager
Slingshot Media Ventures
Sydney, AUS
06.2021 - 09.2022
- Extensive global trading experience is leveraged to enhance the agency's TV buying capabilities and maximise performance against key KPIs for Slingshot clients.
- Responsibilities include TV market forecasting, negotiations, campaign implementation and optimisation, as well as reporting on high-volume, audited clients.
- Led agile trading approach to address challenges from global events, ensuring campaign continuity and responsiveness.
- Contributor to client audits, consistently and significantly outperforming the benchmarking pool, irrespective of market conditions.
- Sole Trading Manager in a small trading team, with a client patch covering FMCG, retail, home wares, and entertainment industries.
Media Planer Buyer
The Media Store
Sydney, AUS
08.2018 - 06.2021
- Clients include Toyota, Regional Tactical Marketing, and FCAI, acting as the client account lead managing the Takata Airbag Recall across Australia.
- Developed campaign strategies, planned channels, analysed markets, negotiated with partners, and managed client communications and relationships with creative agencies to enhance campaign effectiveness.
- Presented at client workshops, and contributed to campaign ideation sessions.
- Mentored junior staff members to improve project execution.
- Supported Commercial Director in identifying and pursuing new business opportunities to expand client portfolio.
Planner Buyer
All Response Media
Leeds, UK
04.2017 - 07.2018
- Key TV planner/buyer across several clients and sectors, while acting as the trading lead for the Leeds office (6 months maternity cover).
- Informed agency of latest market insights, enhancing strategic recommendations.
- Well-versed in leveraging the combined power of industry-standard and in-house tools to maximise ROI for clients' campaigns based on KPIs, including 1+/4+ Reach, CPM, Website Traffic, Engagement, and Conversions.
Senior TV Buyer
IPG Mediabrands
Dublin, ROI
05.2016 - 01.2017
Trading Manager
Group M
Dublin, ROI
11.2015 - 05.2016
Media Trainee, Trading Assistant and Trading Executive
Republic of Media
Manchester, UK
08.2012 - 10.2015
Education
A-Levels - Economics, Media Studies, Psychology
Lancaster Girls' Grammar School
Lancaster, UK06-2012
GCSE -
Saint Aidan's Technology College
Preesall, UK07-2010
Skills
- Team collaboration
- Effective communication
- Problem solving
- Presentation skills
- Relationship building
- Client relationship management
- Investment management
- Trading strategies
- Analytical skills
- Relationship building
- Media negotiations
- Revenue generation
- Campaign strategy
- Strategic planning
Websites
- https://www.adnews.com.au/news/digital-audio-spend-rises-but-media-agencies-say-broadcast-radio-still-important
- https://www.adnews.com.au/news/media-agencies-on-seven-s-sharp-strategy-for-2026
- https://www.adnews.com.au/news/cautious-green-shoots-break-through-cracked-ad-spend-numbers
- https://www.adnews.com.au/news/digital-audio-spend-rises-but-media-agencies-say-broadcast-radio-still-important
- https://www.adnews.com.au/news/long-read-the-changing-face-of-the-upfronts
- https://www.adnews.com.au/news/media-agencies-applaud-ooh-s-pitch
- https://www.adnews.com.au/news/media-agencies-say-move-2-0-delay-disappointing-but-expected
- https://www.adnews.com.au/news/stability-emerging-from-the-brutal-slide-in-ad-spend-numbers
- https://www.adnews.com.au/news/youtube-brandcast-media-agencies-on-the-big-in-person-pitch
- https://www.adnews.com.au/news/long-read-the-enduring-power-of-tv-for-regional-australia
- https://www.adnews.com.au/news/media-agencies-on-voz
Timeline
Trading Manager and Senior Trading Manager
The Media Store
04.2023 - Current
Senior Business Manager
Alchemy One
10.2022 - 03.2023
Investment Manager
Slingshot Media Ventures
06.2021 - 09.2022
Media Planer Buyer
The Media Store
08.2018 - 06.2021
Planner Buyer
All Response Media
04.2017 - 07.2018
Senior TV Buyer
IPG Mediabrands
05.2016 - 01.2017
Trading Manager
Group M
11.2015 - 05.2016
Media Trainee, Trading Assistant and Trading Executive
Republic of Media
08.2012 - 10.2015
A-Levels - Economics, Media Studies, Psychology
Lancaster Girls' Grammar School
GCSE -
Saint Aidan's Technology College