Roldós y Compañía, the oldest operating advertising agency in the world

IF 0.5 Q4 BUSINESS Journal of Historical Research in Marketing Pub Date : 2024-01-10 DOI:10.1108/jhrm-07-2023-0028

Carolina Serra Folch, Cristina Martorell Castellano

{"title":"Roldós y Compañía, the oldest operating advertising agency in the world","authors":"Carolina Serra Folch, Cristina Martorell Castellano","doi":"10.1108/jhrm-07-2023-0028","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<h3>Purpose</h3>\n<p>This paper aims to review the history of Roldós y Compañía, one of the oldest advertising agencies in the world and the oldest currently operating. This research aims to highlight the importance of this agency and its founder, Rafael Roldós Viñolas – the first documented advertising agent in Spain to this day – in shaping the emerging Spanish advertising industry at the end of the 19th century.</p>\n<h3>Design/methodology/approach</h3>\n<p>The methodology used in this paper is based on a review of period and contemporary literature, as well as on newspaper sources and documents from the private archive of Roldós, S.A.</p>\n<h3>Findings</h3>\n<p>In its early years, the agency’s participation in two of the most significant events for the modernization of the city of Barcelona, the Universal Exhibition of 1888 and the International Exhibition of 1929; as well as the ideation and implementation of several urban projects with the aim of finding new formulas and advertising media are factors that make it one of the most important in the country. In 1929, the alliance Roldós-Tiroleses, S.A. de Publicidad, the first great merger of advertising agencies in Spain, which lasted three years, was led. The outbreak of the Civil War and the subsequent post-war period marked a few years of business irregularities and advertising silences that gave instability to its activity. During the last third of the 20th century, the agency was immersed in the generalized advertising euphoria around the world. With the arrival of North American agencies in Barcelona and the consequent business movements, Roldós, S.A. specializes in the processing of advertisements and media planning. The 21st century began with important changes in the media planning sector, and the agency was forced to restructure its services and organizational structure. In 2022, it celebrates 150 years of uninterrupted activity, recognized by the country’s business sector.</p>\n<h3>Practical implications</h3>\n<p>This research aims to internationalize the history of the Roldós y Compañía agency, so that it can be studied together with other names of Anglo-Saxon advertising pioneers who were contemporaries of Rafael Roldós.</p>\n<h3>Originality/value</h3>\n<p>Scientific research on the history of advertising agencies, especially in Spain, is scarce, so this paper aims to help fill this gap.</p>","PeriodicalId":44447,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Historical Research in Marketing","volume":"146 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5000,"publicationDate":"2024-01-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Historical Research in Marketing","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1108/jhrm-07-2023-0028","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q4","JCRName":"BUSINESS","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to review the history of Roldós y Compañía, one of the oldest advertising agencies in the world and the oldest currently operating. This research aims to highlight the importance of this agency and its founder, Rafael Roldós Viñolas – the first documented advertising agent in Spain to this day – in shaping the emerging Spanish advertising industry at the end of the 19th century.

Design/methodology/approach

The methodology used in this paper is based on a review of period and contemporary literature, as well as on newspaper sources and documents from the private archive of Roldós, S.A.

Findings

In its early years, the agency’s participation in two of the most significant events for the modernization of the city of Barcelona, the Universal Exhibition of 1888 and the International Exhibition of 1929; as well as the ideation and implementation of several urban projects with the aim of finding new formulas and advertising media are factors that make it one of the most important in the country. In 1929, the alliance Roldós-Tiroleses, S.A. de Publicidad, the first great merger of advertising agencies in Spain, which lasted three years, was led. The outbreak of the Civil War and the subsequent post-war period marked a few years of business irregularities and advertising silences that gave instability to its activity. During the last third of the 20th century, the agency was immersed in the generalized advertising euphoria around the world. With the arrival of North American agencies in Barcelona and the consequent business movements, Roldós, S.A. specializes in the processing of advertisements and media planning. The 21st century began with important changes in the media planning sector, and the agency was forced to restructure its services and organizational structure. In 2022, it celebrates 150 years of uninterrupted activity, recognized by the country’s business sector.

Practical implications

This research aims to internationalize the history of the Roldós y Compañía agency, so that it can be studied together with other names of Anglo-Saxon advertising pioneers who were contemporaries of Rafael Roldós.

Originality/value

Scientific research on the history of advertising agencies, especially in Spain, is scarce, so this paper aims to help fill this gap.

查看原文

微信好友朋友圈 QQ好友复制链接

本刊更多论文

世界上历史最悠久的广告公司 Roldós y Compañía

目的本文旨在回顾 Roldós y Compañía 公司的历史，该公司是世界上最古老的广告公司之一，也是目前经营历史最悠久的广告公司。本研究旨在强调该广告公司及其创始人拉斐尔-罗尔多斯-维诺拉斯（Rafael Roldós Viñolas）--西班牙迄今为止第一位有文字记载的广告代理商--在 19 世纪末塑造西班牙新兴广告业方面的重要性。研究结果 Roldós, S.A.早年参与了巴塞罗那城市现代化进程中最重要的两件大事，即 1888 年的世界博览会和 1929 年的国际博览会，并策划和实施了多个城市项目，旨在寻找新的广告形式和广告媒体，这些因素使其成为巴塞罗那最重要的广告公司之一。1929 年，Roldós-Tiroleses, S.A. de Publicidad 联盟成立，这是西班牙广告公司的首次大合并，历时三年。内战的爆发和随后的战后时期，标志着几年的业务不规范和广告业的沉寂，给其活动带来了不稳定性。20 世纪后三分之一时期，广告公司沉浸在全球广告业的普遍繁荣之中。随着北美广告公司进驻巴塞罗那以及随之而来的商业运动，罗尔多斯股份公司开始专门从事广告处理和媒体策划。进入 21 世纪后，媒体策划领域发生了重大变化，该公司被迫重组其服务和组织结构。本研究旨在将 Roldós y Compañía 公司的历史国际化，以便将其与与拉斐尔-罗尔多斯同时代的其他盎格鲁-撒克逊广告先驱的名字放在一起研究。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文去求助

来源期刊

Journal of Historical Research in Marketing BUSINESS-

CiteScore

0.90

自引率

33.30%

发文量

期刊介绍： Launched in 2009, Journal of Historical Research in Marketing is the only quarterly, peer-reviewed journal publishing high quality, original, academic research that focuses entirely on marketing history and the history of marketing thought. Pedagogical and historiographical / methodological essays are also welcome as long as they are grounded in a marketing and historical context. The essence of an historical perspective is a thorough, systematic, critical awareness of the changes (or continuity) in events over time and of the context in which change or continuity occurs. In addition to regular full length research articles, the Journal occasionally features material under the following sections. Explorations & Insights includes invited commentaries about marketing history and the history of marketing thought. These tend to be shorter (three to six thousand words) than the full articles that run in each issue. Sources of Historical Research in Marketing includes short essays introducing unexplored and novel archives and other primary historical resources, their contents and relevance to marketing history. Archivists or library professionals who believe their collections might be of interest to marketing historians are invited to submit essays to contribute to this section. JHRM also invites historical review essays that focus on historically important marketing books under the section Forgotten Classics. Examples of these historical reviews can be found in past issues of the Journal and those suggest an approach for potential submissions. Authors are advised to check with the editor about the suitability of a book title before submitting a Forgotten Classics review for consideration.