It's complicated. But Colorado, which loved California a year ago, is loving the Golden State all over again.
Last Valentine's Day, the Metro Denver Economic Development Corp. unleashed a marketing push called "COlovesCA," focused on California companies in growth mode and ripe for expansion.
The message: Do that growing and expanding in Colorado, with its lower taxes and living costs, high quality of life and educated workforce, instead of in pricey, over-regulated, budget-befuddled, earthquake-and-mudslide-prone California.
The EDC last year hired a plane towing an 80-foot-long "Colorado loves CA" banner to fly over Los Angeles. It ran ads in California newspapers, inviting companies to expand to Colorado. And it sent Valentine-style marketing pieces to senior executives at hundreds of California companies.
Friday, Metro Denver EDC chief Tom Clark says Colorado is professing its affections for California once again:
• It's running an ad in the business pages of the Los Angeles Times touting Colorado's virtues.
• It's sending Valentines and chocolate hearts to executives of Fortune 500 and "clean tech" companies.
• And a street team of "Colorado Cupids" are in Los Angeles Friday, handing out candy. The cupids will pass out hugs and kisses outside Saturday's Colorado Avalanche-Los Angeles Kings hockey game.
"I hope our light-hearted campaign does convey that we are in this for the long run," Clark said in a statement. "The entire West needs California. It is the innovation hub of the nation and the source of many jobs that are spun out to the Western states."
Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter issued a proclamation declaring Friday "Colorado Loves California Day" (and really, nothing says love quite like a gubernatorial proclamation).
Local eco-devo boosters can point to several recent "gets" of California companies, including the recent headquarters relocation of kidney-care company DaVita to Denver, SPG Solar's decision to open a regional office in the metro area, and local expansions by such California firms as Charles Schwab, SolarCity, SunRun and Intuit.
Of course, there's also Oracle's recent takeover of Sun Microsystems, which could lead to layoffs in Colorado. (Business, like life, is like a box of chocolates; you never know what you're gonna get.)
Last year's campaign triggered a healthy degree of self-criticism in California.
"This is a wake-up call, a wake-up Valentine, that tells us we've got to get sharp about how we treat companies," Terry Connelly, business school dean at San Francisco's Golden Gate University, told KGO-TV, the ABC station in the city, in its report on the Denver initiative.
"Other Western states are taking note of California's unhealthiness," San Francisco Chronicle columnist Andrew S. Ross noted.
But Jack Kyser, chief economist for the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp., said last year that Colorado and other states that try to lure California business are missing the point behind what makes California companies so successful.
"It's the attitude, especially in Southern California. You have a lot of talent and a whole array of industries. We're very open to new things," Kyser told the Contra Costa (Calif.) Times. "A lot of people don't realize that's one of the keys to our survival."
(Oh, by the way, the Contra Costa Times is owned by MediaNews Group Inc. — a Colorado company — as are most San Francisco Bay Area newspapers.)
The Metro Denver EDC says it will follow up on this weekend's marketing blitz by setting up meetings with California companies, site selectors and news media.
mharden@bizjournals.com
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