On Thursday, 23 May 2013, Carolina Albero López, the Head of the Department of Communication and the President's Office at Repsol Barcelona, gave a talk to second-year students from the Advertising and Public Relations programme as part of the subject History and Theory of Advertising and Public Relations taught by Dr Pilar Buil.
During her talk, Albero offered insight into the communications policy implemented by Repsol when it acquired the oil company YPF in 1999. She stressed that transparency and the merging of intangible assets were key to ensuring the success of the communications strategy employed by the company after acquiring its Argentinean counterpart.
Albero then went on to discuss the strategy that was implemented and the different areas that were tackled during the process, which focused for the most part on relations with the media. Activities involving both Spanish journalists and local media were carried out in order to ensure full and comprehensive coverage.
The concept of corporate identity was also of great relevance to this merger and, along with advertising and sponsorship, helped promote the brand and generate a positive reception amongst the Argentinean population. For example, during the decade following the merger, Repsol YPF became an “official supporter” of the Argentina national football team and the sponsor of a number of motorsport events, in addition to supporting a range of cultural and community-relations programmes.
The Repsol representative ended her talk by outlining some of the company’s crisis-communication arrangements, and detailed the communications policy the company adopted in response to the Argentinean government’s expropriation of YPF last year.
