Lowe Worldwide to rebrand Russian oil giant

Lowe Worldwide has been appointed to handle the rebranding of Russian oil giant Lukoil following a pitch. Lowe will work on the launch campaign, when all Jet petrol stations will be rebranded to Lukoil across Europe.

Lukoil was founded in 1991 and is Russia’s largest oil company. It has over 5,400 gas stations across 20 countries around the world and, in 2006, it produced 95.2m metric tons of oil. The rebrand will take place across Central and Eastern Europe and Belgium.

Meanwhile, Lowe Worldwide and Germany’s Scholz & Friends are setting up a joint venture in Bucharest to target Eastern Europe’s third-largest ad market. The new agency – Scholz & Friends International – will begin operations in September, following a global strategic alliance agreed last year. The move marks the end of the co-operation between Scholz and GAV Balkanski.