Local shop Astana is believed to have landed a one-year contract for the Petronas Dagangan (covering its petrol, lubricants and convenience stores) business in Malaysia after a five-agency shootout six months ago. Incumbent Leo Burnett, which has worked with Petronas for about 10 years, declined to repitch. Burnett still has the bulk of Petronas' estimated RM80 million (US$21.2 million) account, covering corporate communications, inclu- ding its festivals-linked advertising, motorsports and a separate unit for its overseas retail lubricant business. However, it is believed the resignations of senior Burnett Malaysia executives on the account -- client service head David Mitchell and ECDs Alex Lim and Chan Lee Shon -- could trigger a review of the corporate brief as well. Burnett is also losing Sue D'Cruz, head of Arc, but the agency has said that the ECDs and D'Cruz will continue as consultants.
The domestic retail brief, which was contested by incumbent Zenith and Starcom, which handles corporate and F1 sponsorship, is expected to stay with Zenith.
In China, where Petronas is also pitching, sources point to Publicis taking up the bulk of the creative task, with Euro RSCG on below-the-line duties. Petronas' China subsidiary is gearing up branding activities for its lubricant products to cash in on China's strong auto-buying market.
There are more than 3,000 competing products, from international players like BP, Shell and Caltex and local giant Sinopec. "The key challenge is that Petronas is an unknown brand with unclear benefits," said a source, pointing to its sponsorship of the Shanghai Grand Prix as an event that is likely to be leveraged to build the brand in China.