Saab 9-4x paper ad
October 5, 2011 in News
One of our readers found this yesterday, while reading the october issue of the WIRED magazine.
I like it, and not only because they seem to concentrate on the engineering side of it. 
You are browsing the archive for advertising.
by Red J
by Red J
Saab 9-5 Advertorial
February 24, 2011 in Saabology
We all remember the Saab 9-4x advertorial in the Glamour magazine. Well it seems like Saab has made a second advertorial with a male model and the Saab 9-5 in the Background, the scenery seems to be the same, but Jeff can confirm it.
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRPBCvcZLjU
I don’t know in which magazine we will see this advertorial, but maybe somebody in the States should take a look in the next edition of the Glamour magazine.
Sometimes I can’t read. 
It says DETAILS shoot, and I read details of the shoot.
Now I know that there is a magazine with the name DETAILS
Thank you lala.
by Swade
Monday Snippets – Valentines edition
February 14, 2011 in Saabology
It’s been a public holiday here in Hobart and with the beautiful conditions we’ve had today, I hope you’ll forgive me for having made the most of it and enjoying they day. The Wooden Boat Festival was fantastic.
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It’s also Valentines Day, an occasion we’ve never covered from a Saaby perspective.
Do you have any Valentines Day Saab stories that are fit for sharing? Did you drive off from your wedding with cans a-clunking from your Saab? Shared a memorable romantic drive? Meet your partner at a Saaby event? Have you ever given/received any Saaby gifts for Valentines day and if so, what sort of punishment did you receive?
It doesn’t have to have happened on V-day, any slightly romantic Saaby story will do.
Send in your stories (photos welcome) and I’ll share them all together later in the week. They can be inspiration for next year 
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Congratulations to Nicola on picking up his new Saab 9-5 2.0T Aero. It’s his fifth Saab and the tenth new one in his family since 1982!
10 points to the film buff who can tell me the name of the road the photos were taken on, and the 1960s film it’s famous for (some crazy driving!).
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Can you imagine a top-ten list where a Saab finishes above a Ford Mustang, a Mitsubishi Evo, a Ferrari F40 and a Bugatti Veyron?
Popular Mechanics has paid tribute to some of the pioneering cars of the turbocharging era. The Saab 99 Turbo is second, with only the Porsche 911 Turbo before it.
It’s a fantastic list and well worth reading.
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Some fact on Superbowl advertising……
Car ads were four of the top 10 most watched ads during the Superbowl.
Car ads were five of the top 10 most likes ads shown during the Superbowl.
But sadly….
Car ads were zero of the top 10 ads from the Superbowl with the best recall.
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And finally, spotted by Jos on Twitter……
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by Swade
Car ads at Superbowl XLV
February 8, 2011 in Uncategorized
We’ve talked a lot about advertising recently, especially in the US market. There was some support for advertising at the Superbowl, too.
I thought I’d give you a walk through of the automotive-related advertising that was placed during the big game. Spots are said to go for several million dollars a-piece, which Saab just doesn’t have the cash for. For those companies that do, here’s how they spent it. You be the judge.
Suzuki Kizashi:
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mUBWMtXiMs
Chevy Cruze:
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFFWGT_GzYo
Bridgestone:
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBUcG7xZB-g
VW – Black Beetle
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ulbjaKmKG0
by Swade
Video – Varta and Saab
January 19, 2011 in Uncategorized
Saab make cars, Varta make a specific part that goes in cars.
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7-uSysW8Eg
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Thanks to Martin for the tip!
by Swade
Wednesday Night Snippets – 2nd Wed edition!
December 8, 2010 in Saabology
Two lots of snippets on the same day?
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Spiegel has a good article on Saab’s revival, which is very encouraging coming from a German publication.
“We went through hell,” Muller says of the period of negotiations with the former Saab owner General Motors. Gradually, however, business is back – at least in the first three quarters of 2010 almost 20,000 cars were sold by year end it will be about 30,000.
They also tested the Saab 9-5 recently, which they seemed to like quite a lot, aside from the 2.0T fuel consumption (remember, fuel economy is of the devil )
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Saab should bring back the Saab Way training course.
Very interesting reading from a guy who probably write the book for it (I’m quite sure he didn’t, actually, but he’s qualified to).
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Congratulations to Jason M for picking up a new (to him) Saab 9-3 recently. Just his second Saab….
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And finally, here’s another dealer-generated advertisement, this time for a combined Saab-Spyker dealership (oh, what fun it would be!)
Note: I’ve converted it from PDF and reduced the size, so the image quality isn’t as good as the original.
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by Swade
Classic Saab advertising – Saab Vs
November 10, 2010 in Saabology
I first posted these on the Trollhattan Saab site back in June 2005.
Seeing we’re having a focus on Saab advertising this month, I thought it’d be worthwhile showing these ads again. They’re favourites for many, combining some interesting stories along with fantastic imagery, occasional humour.
For the owner of a different make of vehicle, they’ll inspire interest. For the owner of a Saab, they inspire a certain amount of pride.
Please enjoy.
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Saab vs WYSIWYG
What you see is what you get. A rather unimaginative way of looking at the world. Take the Saab 9-5 wagon. On the surface, a cargo carrier. But look under the hood. A turbocharged engine that generates enourmous amounts of torque. The car’s versatility is evident: Cargotracks for securing loads, an optional sliding floor to make loading easier. But what about the torsionally rigid body construction that gives the car handling characteristics similar to a sports sedan? Can you see that?
Plenty more after the jump…..
by Swade
What do you expect from a Saab ad?
November 10, 2010 in Saabology
The (unofficial) Saab ad competition is going full steam ahead.
We’ve received some fantastic entries and it’s quite obvious that there are some very talented people out there.
I thought it might be worthwhile having a quick discussion as to what makes a good advertisement. That is…. what is it that we’re trying to achieve through this competition? What’s a good ad?
Is it incredibly good visuals?
A great tagline?
Plenty of information, or the ability to say more by writing less?
I’m no ad guru and I like various different types of ads. I guess the bottom line is that it’s got to have at least one very good element that stays with me and makes me think about it after I’ve turned the page, or switched the channel.
What floats your advertising boat?
by Swade
Välkommen till Svenska promotional ad
October 30, 2010 in Saabology
Saab are promoting the runout of 2010 stock in the US and have run this advertisement today in both the Wall Street Journal and USA Today.
That’s some massive coverage not just for this campaign, but for the brand as a whole.
Just checked out Shaw Saab’s stock of 2010 Saabs, too. They publish around 80 photos of each car in stock! Amazing.
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by Swade
Honda beating up on Saab in advertisement
October 22, 2010 in Saabology
This post started with an ad that was spotted today in Uddevalla. The photo of that one was a bit blurry, so I’ve substituted it for another photographed at St Eriksplan train station in Stockholm by Jakob W.
The ad says:
Älskade Saabägare Förlåt
Vi har nog glomt att beratta om vara bilar
Which translates to:
Loved Saab owners, forgive us
We’ve probably forgotten to tell you about our cars
It should be mentioned first that this is part of a bigger “Forgive Us” campaign that Honda seem to be running. The slogan is writ large on their Swedish website. But in mentioning Saab directly, it could be understood as them taking a shot at a vulnerable competitor.
Here in Australia, this would probably be taken as being a little bit cheeky. In Sweden, however, I’m told that this attempt at beating up on what could be perceived as an injured party is quite a cultural no-no.
The guy who sent it to me, Jens, had quite a reasonable respect for Honda as a company. That respect has just been diminished a little.
But maybe I shouldn’t be mentioning any of this. Maybe I’m beating up on the little guy in doing so.
HondaBil sell the Accord (sedan and wagon), Jazz, Insight, Civic (5dr and Type R), CR-V and CR-Z in the Swedish market……. and in September 2010 they sold 352 vehicles.
Saab sold 801……….. if you only count the Saab 9-3.
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by Swade
Saab 9-3x used on The Amazing Race
October 18, 2010 in Saabology
Anyone watch The Amazing Race?
It’s a show where a bunch of couples (be they couples, or siblings, parent/child or just old buddies) go from country to country having to solve a bunch of puzzles and challenges to get through to the next round.
We’ve had one comment and I’ve had one direct email today saying that the latest episode of The Amazing Race featured the Ice Hotel in Kiruna, with contestants driving around in Saab 9-3x’s.
Cue the generic cold Saab photo…..
Apparently you might be able to see the episode online at the CBS website, starting some time in the next 24 hours.
It’s great publicity for Saab, with winter coming in the US and the 9-3x being shown in it’s natural habitat. Great stuff.
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by Swade
Saab Spain use “not for you” advertising
September 21, 2010 in Saabology
We’ve talked ad nauseum (pardon the pun) about Saab’s recent advertising and this one has just popped up in Spain.
One of the controversial ads that Saab used in the US in the last few months is the She’s Not For You ad. This uses a similar tagline, but without the fluff.
Being an online ad, the full story has been omitted. Instead, it says the following (translated) …….
The all-new Saab 95. Alive and kicking.
You are a very serious guy. It is not for you.
The ad appeared online at a news site called El Confidencial, which I’m told is a news website typically used by executives, politicians, etc. The “in” here is that people are looking at a serious news site, they’re considered serious people and Saab are teasing them by implying that they’re too serious for such a car.
The ad flashes up as a full-screen graphic first, before appearing as a rectangle ad on the front page of the site. Personally speaking, it works for me much better as a shortened web ad than as a text ad in a magazine.
Opinions aside, it’s just good to see Saab advertising in the Spanish market again. Spain overtook Germany for a short time as Saab’s #4 marketplace, but that was a couple of years ago now.
Thanks to Oscar G for the tip!
by Swade
Saabs Ads in US this week – and more 9-5 arrivals
August 24, 2010 in Saabology
A user over at Saabnet has written up some information about the US advertising schedule for Saab, which will start in earnest from today.
The campaign will start this Monday with TV commercials on cable channels BBC America, Food network, HGTV, Comedy Central, Discovery, History Channel, CNN, and a few others. There will also be some large print ads in the NY Times and Wall Street Journal. And most of the car magazines will have ads next month.
It makes sense for the blitz to start now as a shipload of them were unloaded in New Jersey last week and deliveries to dealerships have started.
Here’s one that arrived at Ardmore Saab, PA.
And as an added bonus, here’s one being delivered at Charles River Saab late last week. People coming to Swedish Car Day will quite likely see this one on the weekend.
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlW00s9pfcg
Thanks to Max T for the video!……and to Steve F for the Saabnet tip.
by Swade
Friday Snippets – VM-OK and Fifth Gear edition
August 13, 2010 in News, Saabology
I received an email from Victor Muller a few minutes ago and he reports that all is well and good. The gall bladder was ditched on Monday. He’s back on his feet now and will be at Pebble Beach tomorrow for the Saab presser being held there.
Good news!
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Fifth Gear have apparently filmed a road test of the new Saab 9-5, with Vicki at the wheel.
Sadly, it seems to be restricted based on your location and as I’m not one who fiddles with such things, I’m currently unable to view it.
Click here and try your luck. If you can see it, perhaps you can pass on their thoughts.
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One of the prime reasons I resolved to work so hard on covering the Saab sale and making sure it stayed in the news was because I felt that Saab deserved that chance – a chance to influence their own fate. I was very strong in my opinion that a decision to close Saab should not be made by a bunch of executives in another country, several of whom had probably never even visited Trollhattan.
Ed Whitacre, the man who had the final say, announced today that he will resign from GM, effective 1 September. He’ll have spent just over one year on the job there. Structurally speaking, he had every right, even an obligation, to decide Saab’s fate. Ethically, morally? Not so much.
I’m just glad the right decision was made in the end. Enjoy your latest retirement, Ed.
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Our man in the UK, Robin M, seems to be enjoying this whole drive-to-IntSaab-in-a-new-9-5 thing.
Brand new car, Euro lodgings and good mates everywhere. It’s nice to be him, ain’t it
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And finally…….
A Saab billboard from Germany!!
This one was spotted by Alexandros, in Munich. His translation of the main text is “What was to be proven.” and the ad then ties in with Saab’s new Anything But Ordinary campaign.
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by Swade
Car companies and Youtube effectiveness
August 11, 2010 in Saabology
Social Car News had a good article today, where they took a look over the various Youtube channels of some European car manufacturers.
They took a broader look at each one than what I have here, but I thought it would be good to drill down into some of the numbers and see if they tell us anything about each company, the way it’s using Youtube to engage customers and the relative success of each company in doing so.
Here are the numbers. You can sort the table by clicking on the arrows at each header. The default sorting is alphabetical by company name.
| Car | Price | Mileage | Depreciation ($) | Depreciation (%) | Depreciation ($) per mile |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A) 2011 Acura TL Auto | $36,065.00 | 4 | |||
| B) 2008 Acura TL Auto | $20,399.00 | 26429 | $15,666.00 | 43.44% | $0.59 |
| C) 2008 Acura TL Auto* | $14,999.00 | 38680 | $21,066.00 | 58.41% | $0.54 |
| Average Price for 2008 Acuras | $17,699.00 | ||||
| Average Depreciation in $ | $18,366.00 | ||||
| Average Depreciation in % | 50.92% | ||||
| Average Mileage for 2008 Acuras | 32554.5 | ||||
| Average Depreciation per mile | $0.57 |
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Why “Saab” and “Saab II”?
16 of the 54 videos on Saab’s Youtube channel relate to footage of the dinner held on the Saturday night of the Saab Festival. I know from doing videos like this myself that they are valued by the people that watch them, but that those numbers are small.
In fact, the dinner videos have an average of just 347 views each, so the inclusion of these videos is definitely of statistical significance. Their inclusion has a significant influence on both the total number of videos uploaded as well as the average number of views per video.
Given that these videos are quite recent, its doubtful their addition to Saab’s Youtube channel would have added to the number of subscribers to the channel, so I’ve left this figure the same.
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I thought I’d just run some simple numbers, which are shown in the last two columns.
The first of these is VpVideo, or Views per Video. It’s an average number of views per video for each manufacturer. I guess you could say that this can be used as a guide to how much interest there has been in the channel.
Saab does pretty well in this regard, rated fifth and following on from some pretty popular companies.
The number of average views per video can be influenced by a several factors not limited to the size of the company. These include how often the videos are embedded into websites, blogs, forums, etc. When you consider the amount of coverage the big German companies get in all the fanzines, etc, Saab really are doing pretty well.
The second number is SpVideo, or Subscribers per Video. My take on this is that it shows the ‘stickiness’ of the Youtube channel. It’s an indicator of how many people view a video and then decide that they want to see more from that company. This can be governed not only by the level of interest, but also by the nature of the videos produced and uploaded by the company.
From this figure, you can see that everyone wants a Porsche and no-one cares a whiff about Smart companies with what’s perceived as an attractive product, as well as engaging video, seem to do pretty well here.
Sometimes it’s the sheer attractiveness of the product, which can be an enduring thing over a long period of time (Aston Martin, Porsche) and sometimes it’s the constancy and variation of updates as well as exciting product videos (BMW and Audi).
Whatever the magic cocktail is, Saab are lagging behind a little in the number of subscribers per video, which would suggest that whilst there’s been a good level of interest in the videos they publish online, they’re not cementing that connection by getting people to subscribe and watch more of them.
Perhaps it’s the nature of the videos? Many of the videos on Saab’s channel are more about information and less to do with racy product shots. That’s the nature of Saab’s situation over the last 18 months, of course, and is not a criticism. But it could be a pointer as to what might work better in the future.
The internet is becoming a bigger part of people’s automotive research regimen with every week that passes by so whilst online video is just another piece of the puzzle, it’s still one that should be optimised.
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