Scotland is not Switzerland or Sweden, but they seem to have a couple of mountains where in winter they can have some snow fun.
This weekend the 2011 Scottish Snowcross Championships took place in the Glenshee Ski resort.
As you can see, it was sponsored by Saab.
It is an amateur competition, but at least locally, it keeps the name of Saab related with Snow-sports.
Last year Saab already sponsored the event, and it seems like people had a lot of fun.
For more pictures visit the Aberdeen snowsports club.
Back in the days where Ski-cross came to life SAAB-Salomon was a big name in the scene, they even had its own team. Now SAAB doesn’t have the budget, imho, but Salomon is continuing the job on its own.
I hope the relationship with Salomon is still there, and Saab can rejoin Salomon in 2013 when the financial problems of Saab become a lesser problem.
Three cool things about this story: It recommends that Saab refurbishes its links to winter sports (I heartily agree); second, it pleases us Scottish Saab enthusiasts (of which there are many); and the third cool thing is … ahem, the snow.
I totally agree Allan and to also point out that in response to –
“Scotland is not Switzerland or Sweden, but they seem to have a couple of mountains where in winter they can have some snow fun”
hey we are as far north as Alaska and have conditions that make the Alps look like a pussycat when we regularly experience hurricane force winds over the ski centres (emphasis on the word centres) with -20 to -30c a yearly occurrence.
I also link SAAB with sport and feel that this synergy attracts a broader audience in terms of age group and ultimately more sales.
Can anyone remember a SAAB Salomon branded mountain bike (full suspension and discs) that was on sale (at least in Scotland) at the dealerships? I think that this was about 4 cars ago so my guess is some 6-7 years ago.
Hey, I didn’t want to offend Scotland, but it is not the big ski nation.
NO post is ever only to have one comment! Not as long as I`m around:)
I’ve been following with frustration the whole winter how Bimmer is trying to claim some kind of winter car status is Scandinavia sponsoring in almost every outdoor sport event possible. Next year Saab’s got to be more associated with winter, cold and tough conditions that can be overcome.
Same goes for the NA marketing. Why would anyone buy a Saab in Canada if they don’t know how good these cars are all year round?
That is not quite correct. Yes, BMW is now one of the major sponsors of many international sports events, just google BMW & Sponsorship and you’ll see what I mean. BMW and Audi however are big and especially Audi has been one of the major sponsors for most ski events all over the world for years without trying to establish themself as the winter car of Scandinavia in special. Off course there might be some elements of this wintercar-thing, but I think both BMW and Audi have a more general approach to this.
Oh well, throw a snowball after me if I’m wrong 🙂
Cheers from Norway!
-Olav-
Always on the longest road home when out there with my SAAB. Always!
Olav, here it comes 😉
I probably should have added that B have been quite aggressively marketing the 4WD in nearly all events and I hate to say I’ve seen no answer to this from Saab anywhere.
Saab should make it clear that good winter cars don’t necessarily need AWD and if you want it, they most certainly got it.
When sponsoring an event try to get a message through, not just put the company name up there. I think the general public needs to be reminded of the Saab core qualities.
How often don’t we get into a conversation that goes like this: “-Are you really going to drive all the way there in this weather?!” “- I got a Saab.”. “- Yes, of course I shouldn’t have asked.”
It happens to my family many times every winter.
I don’t disagree, but this has still little or nothing to do with what car is best as a winter car. At least here in Europe skiing events always engage huge audiences, and those events are perfect spots for a car manufactor to highligts their products. In the past SAAB was promoted as The Winter Car, but it’s not fair to say that SAAB nowadays is especially better than other car brands in winter conditions and therefor should put there focus on a wider target. Most cars today have FWD and 4WD, in the sixtiees this was very different where only SAAB and a few others had FWD.
In a perfect world SAAB should off course have been the major sponsor at least when it comes to wintersport, but we all know about SAAB’s challenges at the moment. That said, done properly it is amazing how much you can gain on small arenas though. Besides: wintersport (cross country, down hill ++++) isn’t actually a huge sport worldwide. As the Canadian gold medalist Alex Harvey under tthe year FIS World Championship in Oslo answered when a journalist asked about how big his victory was over in Canada: “It’s huge, for the 15 people interested..”
Incoming snowballs, I’m prepared 🙂
Cheers from Norway
-Olav-
Always on the longest road home when out there with my SAAB. Always!
Duck! 🙂
http://www.vibilagare.se/test/langtest/langtest-2011-saab-95-vinner-pa-vintern-30804
Just because cricket isn’t ‘huge’ in Sweden doesn’t mean they shouldn’t sponsor it in the UK. Choosing different sports for different markets is the key and I agree cross country skiing is probably not the best alternative in Canada even though they won the gold medal 😉 (ice hockey?)
As I have commented a few times now already:
I recently drove an Ovlov V50. That experience shocked me, because I had up to that point, assumed that Ovlov would at least come close to what I have come to expect from Saab. My old Saab 9000 from 1997 ran rings around the Ovlov. The 9000 is more stable than the V50 when the highway is partly covered with ice (the V50 kept falling down from the icy edges) and it was much easier to dig through soft snow using the 9000 (the V50 simply got stuck all the time).
FWD is only part of the equation. The weight distribution (front vs rear) and probably some other Saab magic, matters as well. Ovlov clearly got it wrong with the V50.
In Austria BMW is sponsoring the austrian ski team – which is of course the best to place your car as winter car. In summer BMW is sponsoring sailing and golf.
With the winter sponsoring they really got the image of an winter car. (but most people i know buy the cheap bmws without 4wd)
Would be nice if SAAB could do some sposoring to promote xwd
I’d throw a snowball at ya, even if we agreed!
They got the money to do so, it’s wasted energy to worry about that.
Saab has to persuade the market with their own arguments, in any case.
Why does a car maker need a connection to sports, anyway?
I think it’s a no-brainer. A and B (Saabs main and rather sporty competition) have been associated with sports much more for the past twenty years and there’s no question it has contributed vastly to their sales success.
Saab is the perfect choice for smart and active -often outdoor- people so what better way to reach the masses? They still need to get the name out there as much as possible to build confidence in the brand and all the new or updated products.
For some reason I am not able to answer you on the post above where you link to the ‘Vi Bilägare’ article about the wintertest, therefor I do it here. SAAB 9-5 became marginally best out of the test. And I’ll let that emphasise my point related to the Winter Car issue.
I don’t this we disagree that much as a total.
Cheers from Norway
-Olav-
Always on the longest road home when out there with my SAAB. Always!
The above was addressed to RS. Sorry for messing this threat up a bit 😉
The real question begging an answer is just why the Swedish national skiing team drives Volkswagens. Every time I see one of those VW commercials where their cars zoom around on snowy roads, with shots of members of said team interspersed, I get the shivers. The bad kind. The SNSS should be ashamed of themselves for selling out, and should immediately cancel their deal with the Germans in favour of Saab (or possibly Volvo, but that would be foolish as they’d just put themselves at risk of getting stuck in the nearest snow drift). If nothing else, to give me the GOOD shivers the next time they feature in a tv ad.