The poll for the Saab (unofficial) ad competition has now closed and we have our three winners. They’ll be the recipients of a mix of cash and gift vouchers from both Saabs United and the following generous sponsors: New Salem Saab, International Saab, ATS, transport services, SoonSaab, State of Nine, Maptun, Elkparts, Saab USA Parts, The Fudge A’fare and a couple of generous private donors.
Click here to view the finalists.
Click here to view nearly 500 entries received for this competition!
——
On to the winners, then……
In third place with 142 votes is Regular 9-5 getting you down? You need ours., which was sent in by Talladegan.
This ad seemed to speak to a lot of people, tapping in to the shared theme of needing to escape the regular 9 to 5 routine and the Saab 9-5 being the perfect alternative choice for doing so.
—
In second place with a very decent 254 votes is People who test drive a Saab usually by one, which was one of a very strong range of ads submitted by Jorrit.
It’s a sentiment that many Saab fans will resonate with, particularly if they’re currently driving something that isn’t a Saab. I imagine they’d see the 900 in that ad and think about the old days, right before calling their local dealer to see what’s in stock.
This is arguably the most ‘print-ready’ of the ads, gelling seamlessly with Saab’s brand language straight out of the box. For the record, my personal vote went to Jorrit’s other finalist entry, Great Scandinavian design….
—
Drumroll………………
And your winner, with a 25% slice of the pie and 344 public votes (and the leader right from the beginning, to be honest) is Four seasons, Four wheels, Four elements, Four letters, which was submitted by ViktorH.
And the text….
It’s a little controversial, isn’t it. A car ad without a car in it.
And yet I knew this ad could do well from the first moment I saw it because it draws you in to look at the symbols and perform just the right amount of mental gymnastics in order to get the massage.
It’s an impressive result for an impressive ad. Congratulations, ViktorH.
——
BONUS – THE SU ENCOURAGEMENT AWARD
We had one particular entrant in the competition who was tenacious in terms of both the regularity of his submissions and the manner in which he applied himself to listening to people’s thoughts and improving his ads accordingly.
Jake is just 13 years old yet he managed to submit an impressive quantity of work. Several of his ads received votes from the judges but unfortunately for Jake, none received the required second vote needed to get into the finals.
This isn’t a sympathy award. We had other 13 year old entrants, too. This is a reward for a month’s hard work for a young man with the will to work and the maturity to improve his work as things progressed. I admired his dedication to the task. At an age where other kids are busy texting their friends about texting their friends, Jake wanted to improve his work and earn himself some cash.
I can’t do much about the cash, but I’ll be sending Jake my last remaining sealed copy of the Saab Sonett #4 book, which I believe is now quite unavailable given that it was a limited edition released around 5 years ago. It’s a fantastic read about an element of Saab’s heritage that we’d all love to see return.