Advertising, Marketing & PR January 8, 2021 10:25:48 pm

Crispin Porter + Bogusky to move headquarters from Boulder to Denver

By Dan Mika

BOULDER — A Boulder-born advertising firm that handled marketing for some of the world’s biggest brands is leaving for Denver.

Crispin Porter + Bogusky is in the process of moving from Gunbarrel to a 20,000-square-foot office in McGregor Square in Denver’s LoDo District, according to a statement from the company. The move is expected to end in July.

The move was first reported by trade publication AdAge last month.

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In a statement, managing director Ryan Skubic said that the state’s capital has a “diversity and vibrant culture” that matches the firm’s future plans.

“There are lots of great memories and 14 years of CPB history in Boulder, but our future lies in Denver,” Skubic said.

When reached for comment by BizWest, CP+B spokesman David Whitney declined to offer more specifics on why the company decided to make the move and declined to disclose the company’s current headcount.

CP+B was formed in 2004 and has built ad campaigns for Volkswagen AG, Burger King and Kraft Heinz Co. (Nasdaq: KHC).

Some of its campaigns have become ubiquitous in American culture, such as American Express’ Small Business Saturday, while another ad campaign for Domino’s Pizza Inc. (NYSE: DMZ) paid construction crews to fill potholes on streets.

Another campaign for Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) titled “I’m A PC” in 2008 was the tech giant’s major advertising counter to Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: APPL) when it started the “Get A Mac” campaign featuring a suited John Hodgman being stuffy compared to Justin Long in an untucked shirt being more laid back.

Domino’s ended its partnership with CP+B last year, saying it had issues with the firm being tied to marketing holding group MDC Partners Inc. (Nasdaq: MDCA).

Doyle Albee, the president and CEO of Boulder-based public relations agency MAPR, said CP+B’s move isn’t a large immediate loss for Boulder because the majority of the agency’s accounts are national.

The long-term loss to Boulder is the possible loss of new ventures that come out from employees who would be going on their own entrepreneurial paths.

“When we have a Google here and you have a bunch of Googlers who go out to coffee together and three or four of them leave to do a cool startup, they tend to stay in Boulder,” he said. “I saw that a lot with Crispin alums… It’ll be interesting to see if those people who leave Crispin, if they stay in Denver or if they stay in Boulder, and that is what I’d be most worried about. It’s less the nameplate leaving and more so the talent that can come out and want to stay close to home.”

He also said the move is a sign that the premium for living and doing business in Boulder is no longer producing the returns that would make it worthwhile to a business the size of CP+B.

He pointed out that Denver and other cities in Boulder County can offer far lower costs of living while providing the Front Range lifestyle that companies in the region leverage for recruiting employees.

“I’m not worried about Boulder becoming a ghost town by any stretch… but it underscores the fact that we are facing some very serious economic and lifestyle issues here that we need to proactively address on a daily basis, or we’re going to see more of this in the long run,” Albee said.