The World Media Festival is an event held in Germany to honor excellence in corporate communications productions. It covers film, TV, web and print productions.
Here at Saab we’re very proud to acknowledge the Gold and Silver medals awarded for two of our communications films in association with our agency, Valentin and Byhr.
Saab was awarded a gold medal in the category ‘Advertising: Online’ for Introducing the new Saab 9-5:
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Saab also won a silver medal in the category ‘Corporate Communications: Press Conferences’ for Introducing the new Saab 9-4X.
That’s a Saab 9-3 SportCombi body fitted to the chassis of a Dodge Viper. Of course, it was just one photo amongst many and didn’t grab too much attention.
It seems someone has passed the story of this radical project around, however. It was picked up by Jalopnik early in the week and has spread like wildfire around the internet since then. Those of you with Swedish reading skills (or Google Translate) can also read the Saab 9-3 / Viper V10 build thread.
I’ve recently met one of the guys involved in the project and am hoping to see more of this vehicle’s development in the near future. I know it’s not a “Saab Saab” but there’s something very alluring about the whole thing, isn’t there?
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Whilst we might be indifferent towards the song, this Saab video mashup was most enjoyable.
Kudos to Saablime (and ps…. he’s also done a really cool 99Turbo video that fans of the model will love, too)
Saab has been analysed by just about every analyst on the planet in the last few months. It was nice to see the company respond with a well-reasoned and inspiring piece of writing.
Those without Swedish skills will need to copy and paste the text into an online translator.
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I linked to Jalopnik earlier in this entry. Here’s another one.
He single-handedly explains why many road tests are irrelevant, as well as making up a new saying – “As comfy as a Swede riding shotgun” – based on his experience in a Saab.
I’ve always loved his work. This is a good example as to why.
News from the Mille Miglia has been difficult to come by as we only have a very small team in Italy for the event and they’re almost all involved in either competition or support. It doesn’t help that I’ve been flying between Australia and Sweden for the last few days. We will get a more complete story in the coming hours, however.
Until then, here are some photos from Day 2 of this beautiful event through the Itlian countryside.
Click to enlarge.
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We’re also thankful to the Saabway Club, from Italy, who had members present to shoot a fantastic video of all three Saabs at the beginning of the event….
Let’s be honest. It’s a tough week to be writing about enjoyable links. But there are some good stories out there, so let’s take a look at them before I head off to the airport to return back to Saab HQ in Trollhattan.
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Mille Miglia is on right now and there are three Saab 93A’s entered in the event. You can view photos and commentary about the restoration of one of those cars right here at Inside Saab.
We’ll have a full review of the event when it’s over and done, but if you want some real-time updates on what’s happening there, the best place to go is SofieFromSaab’s Twitter page.
Sofie works for Saab in Belgium and she’s there covering the Mille car that’s been prepared and entered in the event by Behermans, the Belgian Saab importer.
From Sofie’s account, here’s Saab’s Technical Director, Mats Fagerhag, taking the Saab 93A prepared by the Saab Museum in Trollhattan (see link above) back to the Mille Miglia museum as part of the event.
Tim’s first day on the job took him to the Saab 9-4x press drive in Washington DC and while he was there, Autoblog conducted a brief interview with him for an article that now appears on their website.
It makes for some good, insightful reading and I’m very encouraged by Mr Colbeck’s background and knowledge not only of Saab, but of Saab’s market as well.
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A few articles from today’s issue of Saabs United:
I really enjoyed this opinion piece written by Lars Carlstrom, originally published in Swedish newspaper SvD and translated at SU. Carlstrom is the Swedish representative for Vladimir Antonov, who seeks to invest in Saab Automobile.
I’m spending quite a lot of time at the moment just visiting various departments within Saab, getting to know what they do.
I spent a little time today at the climate controlled wind tunnel facility, where they can do various types of wind tunnel testing (though not aerodynamic testing, as it’s too small for that). The wind tunnel can be manipulated to simulate all types of weather conditions, but we’ll tell you more about that later.
They also have a couple of climate chambers there, where they can simulate different temperatures but without the wind effects. While we were visiting, a Saab 9-5 SportCombi was undergoing some durability testing on the rear rear door.
I visited the Saab stand for a few hours today at the start of public day #1 at the New York Auto Show.
Given that it was a Friday, and the beginning of Easter, I was a little worried as to whether there would be many people there. When I arrived, around 20 minutes before the show opened at 10am, the lines inside the Javits Center were around 200 meters long. Worry no more.
I paid to go in just like everyone else and there was some palpable excitement amongst the visitors in the queue. Everyone was keen to get inside and have a look around. It was around 10:20 when I finally got to the Saab stand and despite it being some distance from the main entrance (Toyota must be paying a hefty premium for that front spot), there were already a good number of people buzzing around the place.
PhoeniX was as popular as ever…..
As was the ice feature (Wow! it’s real!)
The product specialists at the Saab stand were busy – that’s Maddie giving an overview of the Saab 9-4x, and Jonas leading a visitor through some Saab facts on his iPad….
Saab have changed the layout of the stand for the public exhibition. The 9-4x has moved to the other side of the stand an in it’s place is a Saab 9-5 Sedan (which puts the sedan and Combi in close proximity to one another.
The Saab 9-4x was constantly busy with visitors poking around, asking questions and getting a feel for the vehicle.
One lady spent around 20 minutes in the car, asking in-depth questions and generally looking around. She then came back with her husband and some friends/family and spent another 30 minutes doing it all again. Saab staffers were with her for almost all this time and she left with a brochure and a smile. I’ll be very surprised if her local dealer doesn’t hear from her quite soon.
I met Howard and Gail H at the stand and we had quite a conversation. Howard bought his first Saab in 1975. It was a Saab 99 EMS and he’s bought multiple Saabs since.
His Saab 900s saved his life three times after three seperate head-on collisions. He’s currently got a Saab 9-5 and he and Gail were looking at the Saab 9-5 SportCombi with some considerable amount of admiration. They would excuse me if I said they were ‘compact’ in size so looking at such a large vehicle might surprise you, but one of the reasons Howard has loved his Saabs is the ergonomics and how they always fit him perfectly.
Howard and Gail are waiting to hear more on the resumption of the European Delivery program as they really want to combine a visit to Trollhattan with a European driving holiday. I hope we can help them soon.
There was a little bit of celebrity spotting just across from the Saab stand, at the Spyker stand. It’s easier to get a closer look at roped off cars if you’re an NFL star with a very camera-friendly wife 🙂
I thought I’d have a little fun with some time lapse camera work. This is 30 minutes at the Saab stand on day #1, condensed into four minutes. I hope every other day is either just as busy, or even busier.
Following is the Saab press conference from the New York International Auto Show.
It’s 10 minutes in length and features Matthias Seidl (VP Global Sales and Aftersales), Victor Muller (Chairman) and Jason Castriota (Executive Director, Design).
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Sorry it took a little long to get up here. Who knew HD video would take so long to process?
My thanks to Jason Castriota for taking some time to be our first interviewee here on Inside Saab.
I was curious to ask Jason how his thoughts have settled now that we’re a month or so along from the launch of the Saab PhoeniX Concept at the Geneva Motor Show in March 2011.
PhoeniX was a concept that got a lot of attention, the majority of it positive, but it wasn’t without controversy. The car has received an overwhelming response here in New York and I was keen to see how Jason felt about PhoeniX visiting his home town.
Today was day 2 in New York City, leading up to Saab’s PhoeniX Concept getting it’s official US unveiling at the New York International Auto Show. Today was all about PhoeniX.
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Whenever a new Saab is unveiled, I’ve always taken great effort in telling people not to judge it from photos. People are very passionate about Saab design and that passion tends to lead to strong reactions when something new comes along. I tell people again and again……. You have to go to an event and see the car for yourself, for real.
I’m going to have to add a new element to this mantra of mine – it’s also highly recommended, wherever possible, to go and see a new car in an outdoor setting.
Last night, the bystanders who saw PhoeniX at the night time photo shoot absolutely loved the car. Go read their quotes for yourself, if you like.
Today, I met up with a few friends who were covering the PhoeniX press event. Jeff P is one of the writers for Saabs United. Steve C is a big Saab fan and is attending the auto show press events due to his work with the National Motorists Association. Today was the first time seeing PhoeniX for both of them and I think it’s fair to say that both of them were quite smitten by the end of the encounter.
So…. see it for yourself, and if the rare opportunity presents, see it outdoors, where it can mingle with buildings and other cars like it would in a more real world scenario.
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Jeff and Steve were just a part of the automotive press contingent who came down to Chelsea Piers today to view PhoeniX and have a chat with Jason Castriota.
The weather didn’t play into our hands, but there were still a good number who came out and took a guided tour around the car with the man responsible for its design. Here are a few photos showing how the morning unfolded.
Spare a thought for these guys. Today’s press viewing was the final part of a photo shoot that began at 10pm and continued all through the night, finishing at 1pm today. They’d been awake the whole time, looking after PhoeniX.
I couldn’t resist. This is me taking a photo of a man (SCNA photographer, Len) who’s taking a photo of a man (Top Gear photographer, Joe) taking a photo of a man (Jason Castriota). If anyone was taking a photo of me at the time, please pass it on.
Jason Castriota giving one of many guided tours of the car today. A brave effort, given the conditions.
Anders holds the remote keys that everyone would love to get their hands on – the keys to PhoeniX.
Mother Nature didn’t serve us well today, but PhoeniX still managed to shine on the grounds of Chelsea Piers in New York. Chelsea Piers is a very busy sports complex on the banks of the river and PhoeniX put a smile on the faces of many people passing by, too.
Loading up, in waiting for the big unveiling at the New York International Auto Show on Thursday morning. The car will be hidden away until then.
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I shot the following video towards the end of today’s press event. Unfortunately there was just a little too much ambient noise for the camera to catch the engine and exhaust note properly. I’m sure you’ll enjoy seeing PhoeniX in motion, nonetheless.
