Born From Jets - gone but not forgotten
Born from Jets was Jay Spenchian’s baby, his stamp on Saab’s presence in the United States. It arrived with a blaze of glory and I think it really did have the impact that Saab desired on it’s inception. After the near silence and mixed messages that marked the latter years of Debra Kelly-Ennis’s tenure (otherwise known as the ‘gee-whiz years’), a strong and coherent message like BFJ was a welcome change. Two years down the track, Saab’s still get their heritage from jets, it’s just that that isn’t the main message now - and that’s not a bad thing.
Here’s SaabUSA’s website as I saw it today. Not Hardly a BFJ in sight. Click.
As you can see, it’s all current vehicles, turbocharging, BioPower, cycling - there’s no theme carrying it or running through it. It’s all stand-alone, segmented information about Saab. It’s fresh-looking and the focus seems to be on cars.
Click through to the “about Saab” section and you can have all the heritage and jets stuff you can handle, including the original Born from Jets stuff. But the focus at the front seems to be on the cars themselves, which is great.
Born from Jets gave the company some much-needed identity. Saab’s claims about the campaign’s visibility and stickiness were justified and it even won an Effie award in 2007 - the case study for the award is here. It made a great first impression, but after a time, the lack of meat on the BFJ bones made the campaign seem a little tired. And i’ll admit now that after only a few years, there’s a bit of a cringe factor, too, mainly to do with the two guys with paddles:
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The extended video, below, told the fuller BFJ story, and it’s stuff like this that made BFJ worthwhile. Saab do have a legitimate claim to their BFJ history and a video like this showed that claim. Unfortunately, this video is two minutes long and you can’t fit a 2-minute video into a 30-second ad slot.
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Saab are born from jets. That’s true, but it’s about the past and whilst I love celebrating the past, Saab need to start telling their potential US customers what they’re doing now.
In the wider international market, Saab make some pretty stylish ads that do a good job of highlighting the brand’s values and culture. SaabUSA seem to have taken a step down that road as well, with a simple, yet sophisticated ad that I like more and more whenever I see it. You’ve probably seen it too in the last few days, but in case you haven’t, here it is again:
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It’s not in your face. There’s no desert or salt lake with cars screaming at a million miles an hour with a mile-long dust trail behind them. It’s just an open road, a Saab convertible, and the truth (with apologies to U2).
Many have opined that you need to talk horsepower to get through to the average American. I’d submit that Saab aren’t looking for the average American, they’re looking for Saab buyers. If that sounds snobbish, so be it. I’m a Snaab.
But it’s true. Saab sell only 35,000 cars a year in the US. They probably need to lift that to around 60,000 a year in the medium term for the company to survive. They don’t need to reach the ‘average’ American customer. They need to reach Saab customers.
My thanks go out to the Born from Jets creative people for breaking some ice and creating some interest. Here’s hoping that Saab can build on that with this new elemental campaign.
Saab are still born from jets, but they’re so much more than that. They’re great cars, too.
People should hear about them.
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Swade, still one born from jets slogan top left. What will be the new tag line / slogan?
Thank God. Now they just need to bring in “move your mind” and begin using European commercials.
I wasn’t down on Born from Jets per se; I was down on Born from Jets without any shred of a value proposition behind it.
Swade’s on the mark here — BFJ was a good rallying cry to get the Saab heritage out for everyone to see.
Per the folks at Saab USA, the next ad campaign will highlight “30 years of turbocharging” and should feature some of the older cars (99, C900) in much the way that VW commercials here in the US have used the classic Beetle, Chrysler used the 300 series from the 1960’s (a successful stock car winner) and Hummer has used their AM General Humvee heritage. IT should be interesting to see!
Thank Goodness!! BFJ was a gawdy suit forced on the wearer. Shallow to the point of irritation, as every ad carried disclaimer language to say the car maker and aerospace company are no longer affiliated.
I’m look forward to “real” themes. Recycle. Fuel efficiency. Safety. Big power, small displacement. Designed to be driven. Technology for driving, but not technology just because they can (e.g. MMI, iDrive … ugh!) An automaker that is true to its heritage and has a true auto-making heritage.
“Move Your Mind” … absolutely! No more BFJ. Not even as a tagline after another month or two. If something needs to be born-from, it’s Cadillac being reborn from Saab technology.
“Born From Jets” is on the top left of the page next to the Saab logo.
Yeah, I saw that too! Top left! BFJ did what it was supposed to! As soon as I said I owned SAABs people would say, “oh, born from jets”! They knew atleast that much!
Top left indeed. It’s so small compared to what they used to have around there that I missed it.
Well what I don’t understand is that Saab were so happy and excited with their new XWD, but I have yet to see ONE commercial in regards to that technology.
People are not going to wake up one day and realize that Saab is offering XWD. It kills me
Vector, I’m pretty sure we’ll see some XWD publicity when it rolls out to the four cylinder cars later this year.
The full XWD message would be pretty hard to sell in 30 seconds, which is why I think they’ve waited for the 2.0T to get it before pumping up the volume on it.
I’m not saying it’s right, but I think that’s how it will go. I guess when you’ve got a really restricted ad budget, it’s probably as right as you can get it.
I think Born from Jets as a punchline/banner on webpages and pamphlets is fine (I kinda like it, personally). But, they def. need to expand their TV advertising. BFJ just doesnt explain enough in 30 second spots even if it does look nice.
i am one that’s glad BFJ is being phased out….the oakenfold song became tired imo..and the whole campaign just became stale…i’m not sure if i like the idea of saab going back in the past…if they do anything i would like to see a mock approach like audi…they should claim they’re innovations..APC..heated seats…cooled seats..SAHR…i don’t think they’re product lineup is strong enough to take jabs right now but i just think they need to think more forward and let people know they will be the ones to set the new standards
The problem with BFG is that it didn’t tell me why I should buy a Saab in the 21st century.
I don’t think that you can build a successful brand based purely on nostalgia.
I think that if SAAB wants to reach 60,000 US sales per year, they have to introduce (and do it without badge-engineering some piece of crap) a desirable car that is not priced out of many Americans’ price range. The MSRP for the MY2008 base 9-3 is USD$29K. To compare, the BMW 128i is placed just slightly lower at USD$28K (not an apples-to-apples comparison, but it gives a ballpark figure against what many here and perhaps in Trollhattan would like to be a market competitor, i.e. BMW). I think we can all acknowledge that BMW builds some very fine driving machines, but they are also experts of pricing their entire vehicle range out of 60-80% of Americans’ price range. However, BMW still makes a killing at that $20lK plus or minus $2K range with their MINI, which is a fun, desirable, solid little car.
If SAAB wants to hit that 60K sales/yr mark, or vastly surpass it, the key is young buyers that want something sporty, small, and relatively smart (the MINI’s gas mileage definitely doesn’t hurt it). And that key could very well be the SAAB 9-1, if GM ever gets up the guts to take the dive on it. Making that car in a size on par with the MINI or the BMW 1-series, priced between the two (perhaps more towards the MINI side), and with the SAAB heritage of a turbocharging plus optional XWD and maybe cooperation on or development of the newest auto trend of dual-clutch autos could make it a true market bargain. Oh, and if Rick Wagonner or Bob Lutz are reading this and want to use my idea……..you may use it and also deliver my Lynx Yellow convertible directly to my house, thank you very much.