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Denver Inc.: Best bet for the job? Ad agencies wager presidency on playoff game

Published January 21, 2006 at midnight

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Seems like almost everybody is betting something on the Broncos-Steelers game Sunday, from soup (or beer) to nuts - and you can figure that one out.

Somebody is even betting the farm. OK, it's only an advertising agency, but still. . . .

Mike Burns has bet the presidency of his Fort Collins-based agency Burns Marketing Communications for a week.

If the Broncos win, Burns will assume the role of honorary president at Markowitz Communications, a marketing and public relations agency in Pittsburgh. If the Broncos lose, Saul Markowitz takes over at Burns.

Planned overhauls with the new regimes? Burns promises a new telephone answering policy - as in, "Markowitz Communications. Go Broncos!" - and an orange and blue dress code.

His counterpart a little more creatively plans a 6 a.m. conference call with extra credit for arranging a bagel delivery to the agency's Pittsburgh headquarters before the meeting, which "might even result in a big raise," according to Markowitz.

Alas, any raises will end when the wager does on Jan. 27.

On the beer betting front - and you knew there'd be at least one of these - Pittsburgh Brewing Co. Vice Chairman Joe Piccirilli has issued a challenge to Coors Brewing Co. President Pete Coors.

If Denver wins, Piccirilli will drink a can of Coors Light in public. If Pittsburgh triumphs, Piccirilli has challenged Coors to go out in public and drink a can of Pittsburgh's IC Light.

No word yet from the Coors camp.

Meanwhile, back at the Hard Rock Cafe, the Denver and Pittsburgh crews have the classic T-shirt wager: Losers wear the shirts of the winners' city all day Monday.

What are the odds?

Bad odds

Send in your application for the Google account strategist job in Denver we mentioned last week? Did you also buy a Powerball ticket?

Not that we want to quash your dreams of owning buckets of Google stock. But let's be honest. It will probably take amazingly good luck - or ultra-heavyweight connections - to land any job with the high-flying Internet search giant.

A recent article in the San Francisco Chronicle noted that Google gets flooded with up to 150,000 résumés a month. That's equal to a stack of paper at least 50 feet high, according to the Chronicle.

But you can take a little bit of comfort from this nugget of information: Google claims it reads every single résumé.

We asked the Mountain View, Calif., company how many applications it has received for the Denver position. But the usually secretive search giant - currently fighting a U.S. Justice Department demand for information about consumer Web searches - wouldn't divulge much.

"Response has been strong, but we are not disclosing specific numbers of applicants," Google spokesman Michael Mayzel said in an e-mailed statement.

OK.

Next we tried this tack: How many people currently work for Google in the Denver area? Mayzel wasn't any more forthcoming, saying, "We do not disclose the specific number of employees per office."

He did say Google's operations here include "a team of sales and sales operations professionals working with some of Google's largest and most strategic advertising partners." The company's local operations are based at the Denver Tech Center.

Now we're not saying you shouldn't apply for that lone job here. Go for it! You just might want to temper your expectations of being a Google millionaire.

And buy that Powerball ticket.

Glimpsing the future

Once again this year, the attendees at Vectra Bank Colorado's annual Economic Forecast Breakfast polished their crystal balls, read the tarot cards, shook out the tea leaves and came up with their own predictions for the economy in the coming year.

A few of their prognostications:

• 62 percent say the Dow will close between 11,001 and 12,000 on Dec. 31.

24 percent say 12,001 or higher.

• 46 percent say oil prices per barrel will be between $50.01 and $60 on Dec. 31.

37 percent say above $60.

• 55 percent say 10,001 to 30,000 net jobs will be created in Colorado.

26 percent say 30,001 to 50,000.

No one predicted a net decline in jobs.

• 54 percent said the rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage will be between 6 percent and 6.5 percent on Dec. 31; 36 percent say between 6.51 percent and 7 percent.

Assistant Business Editor Jane Hoback and Deputy Business Editor Gil Rudawsky write about local business talk that doesn't necessarily end up in quarterly reports. They can be reached at business@RockyMountainNews.com.