Molly Cano would have you believe that tourism marketing is her dream job.
And while the Cal Poly grad has spent the better part of a decade talking about and selling the beauty of San Luis Obispo County, deep inside another bright light beckons: Broadway.
Though the stage lights may fill her dreams she’s perfectly content, for the moment anyway, with “being the best radio-accompanied-singing-driver my car has ever heard.”
When SLO City’s tourism manager isn’t harmonizing in her Honda she’s working to put heads in beds of local hotels and scheming marketing brilliance (see: the free $100 rainy day promotion) with city partners to help visitors discover “the magic of San Luis Obispo.”
Fresh off her Visit California Poppy Award win for best overall marketing campaign, the car stereo diva recently turned it down from 11, and talked about the possibility of shaping young minds, being a tourism junkie and her similarities to Mary Poppins.
Which talent would you most like to have?
I’d really like to sing well, like really, really well. I think there is something so captivating about a person who has the gift of an incredible singing voice. It would be a dream to be so talented to play a part on Broadway… but that will never happen so I will just stick with being the best radio-accompanied-singing-driver my car has ever heard!
Who would play you in the film of your life?
Reese Witherspoon. As a real person she’s down to earth, kind and not too serious. She’s also a mom and is passionate about her work. As an actress she’s got the happy-go-lucky yet strong female character down to a science. And let’s face it- she has great hair that I regularly attempt to imitate every time I go into the salon.
Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
For this one I enlisted the help of my closest team members and without a doubt they agreed my most commonly used phrase is, “Hey Guys! I have an idea…”. In my role as the tourism manager, I work very closely with our extensive team of contractors, partners and constituents to always be looking for new ways to maximize our reach of our marketing programs. The ideas I offer might be far-fetched but they ignite the creative process with the team and from that unique and achievable campaigns are built.
Aside from that, I’d have to say my most overused word is “Nice!” I use it as a form of expression to acknowledge great work or when I agree with something, and it’s typically accompanied by a head nod…..”Nice!”
What do you want to be when you grow up?
Honestly, I’m actually one of those incredibly lucky people who already get to do what they love for a living… so when I grow up, I just see that expanding! I’d love the opportunity to help ignite the passion in others for tourism, hospitality and marketing through education. I always say that if I hadn’t taken this career path in tourism, then I’d probably be a teacher. So when I grow up, it would be amazing to give back by teaching others what I’ve learned about this field and help create our future tourism professionals.
Which fictional character do you most relate to?
Mary Poppins and not just because I measure up to be “practically perfect in every way,” but because of her good natured and magical approach to life. Like Mary Poppins, I too try to find the fun in life’s day to day necessities.
Your job is marketing San Luis Obispo as a tourist destination, and the $100 gift card giveaway was a creative way to entice people to visit during a rainy winter. Where did the idea come from and how’s it going?
Well as much as I’d love to take all the credit, I certainly wasn’t alone in developing the idea for the TBID’s Rainy Day promotion. I worked closely with the TBID’s incredible marketing partners, BCA (Barnett Cox and Associates) and Studio Good. The TBID Board tasked us with quickly coming up with a short run marketing strategy that would boost our lodging business in what was forecasted to be a very slow and wet winter. We knew that this campaign had to be something out of the box, attention grabbing and influential in order to move the needle and capture stays in the city of San Luis Obispo. At first, the idea of giving $100 to every guest who booked lodging in SLO seemed a little too crazy but when we really started drilling in on what we could achieve, it became obvious that we’d figured it out. We realized that not only did this campaign accomplish the goal of “heads in beds” but it also gave an opportunity to re-infuse thousands of dollars back into the local economy by encouraging these guests to spend their gift cards within our local businesses.
We launched the campaign mid-January and within the first 20 days we had confirmed over a third of our $100 gift cards and captured nearly 500 new room nights for our lodging businesses. Additionally, the media picked it up and within days of the launch of the campaign dedicated articles were published in sources like the Los Angeles Times and the San Diego Union-Tribune. Needless to say, we are thrilled with the results of the campaign so far and we are only halfway through it.
You’ve spent your career working in tourism and are a self-proclaimed tourism junkie. What is the draw? When did it start? And where does it come from?
I totally am a tourism junkie! Wow, what can I say, I love what I do – it’s pure and simple. My interest in tourism probably started with my travels with my family growing up, but it was fostered into a passion during my time at Cal Poly. As a student, I was fortunate to be introduced to this field as a profession by my incredible professors and mentors who shared their contagious passion for hospitality with me. Now through the journey of my career, it’s grown. The easiest way to describe my passion for tourism is from both the head and from the heart. From the heart, I love that every day I play a role helping people discover the magic of San Luis Obispo by inviting them to enjoy a day, a week, or even just a few hours here. From the head, I am drawn to tourism as an economic driver for our community and how the results of our promotional efforts directly impact the quality of life and experience within our community.