Dashboard Billboards: Škoda turned reverse cameras into ad screens

In December 2022, Škoda placed miniature billboards inside Stockholm parking areas. They were positioned so reversing cameras would show the advertisements on dashboard screens inside nearby cars. NORD DDB Stockholm created Dashboard Billboards to promote Škoda’s electric Enyaq range through vehicles made by competing brands.

The boards remained outside.

However, drivers experienced them inside their cars.

The screen was already facing the right place

Škoda was competing for attention in a car market filled with brands that could afford large outdoor campaigns.

The brand could place another vehicle across a city billboard. Still, it would be entering the same media spaces as manufacturers with much larger budgets.

NORD DDB looked at a screen that car companies had already installed.

Most modern reversing systems display a live image from a camera at the back of the vehicle. Drivers watch that screen closely while entering a parking space.

That created a rare advertising moment.

The audience was inside a car. Their attention was focused on the dashboard. Furthermore, many of them were driving models made by the companies Škoda wanted to compete against.

The agency did not need to alter the software or send an advertisement into the vehicle. It only needed to place something physical where the camera could see it.

A small billboard outside the car became a large image on the screen inside it.

Miniature boards recreated real outdoor advertising

The campaign placed small advertising structures in parking areas around Stockholm.

Each board was designed to resemble a full outdoor site. The miniature builds included details such as ladders, lights and graffiti, making them look like reduced versions of the billboards found beside city roads.

Škoda worked with miniature artist Christopher Robin Nordström to build the structures.

Their small scale served a practical purpose. The boards needed to sit close enough to a parking space for a reversing camera to capture them clearly. At the same time, they needed enough detail for the advertisement to remain readable on the dashboard display.

The installations promoted Škoda’s electric vehicles, including the Enyaq Coupé RS iV introduced in Sweden that year.

Different messages encouraged drivers to consider Škoda while they were sitting inside a Volvo, BMW, Audi, Tesla or another competing vehicle.

That context completed the idea.

The advertisement was not simply near a potential customer. It appeared through the technology inside the product Škoda wanted them to reconsider.

Rival cars became part of the media plan

Dashboard Billboards did not actually purchase space inside another company’s dashboard.

Instead, the reversing camera transformed a public installation into an in-car message.

That distinction made the campaign easy to understand once people saw it working. The car manufacturer had supplied the camera and screen. Škoda supplied the object appearing within their view.

The parking location also gave the work useful timing.

Drivers were already moving slowly and looking carefully at the screen. They were not expected to read an advertisement while travelling on an open road.

The boards appeared during the brief moment when the dashboard display became the driver’s main view of the space behind the car.

Meanwhile, the Christmas shopping period increased activity in major parking areas. More arriving vehicles meant more opportunities for the miniature boards to enter different dashboards.

The campaign ran at selected sites for two weeks.

Once the installation had been documented, films and photographs helped the idea travel beyond the individual drivers who encountered it in Stockholm.

Škoda had created a small physical campaign with a much larger story.

The Impact

Campaign reporting credited Dashboard Billboards with more than 100,000 visits to Škoda’s website.

It also reported a 45 percent increase in people using the website to customise a Škoda and a 300 percent return in earned media value.

Published campaign records give different totals for impressions. The agency’s portfolio reports 1.7 million, while later award submissions list 5.9 million. Therefore, the exact impression figure remains unclear.

The work also attracted a response from within the wider Volkswagen Group. Volkswagen acknowledged the idea with the words “Touché Škoda.”

In 2023, Dashboard Billboards won Gold at Sweden’s Guldägget awards and a Silver Lion in Media at Cannes Lions.

The following year, it received a Silver Pencil for innovation in technology at The One Show, along with four Merit awards across technology, outdoor and direct marketing.

The recognition reflected the campaign’s unusual position.

It was outdoor advertising built at miniature scale. It used technology without changing any technology. Furthermore, it reached drivers inside cars without buying conventional in-car media.

Why It Still Works

Dashboard Billboards found a media opportunity inside an ordinary product behaviour.

A reversing camera was designed to help someone park. Škoda did not interrupt that function. It placed its message inside the view the camera was already showing.

The idea also used scale in two directions.

The physical boards were tiny compared with normal outdoor advertising. However, the dashboard screen brought them close to the driver and made them appear much larger.

More importantly, the campaign reached people while they were sitting inside the category being advertised.

Škoda did not need to place its media beside competitors’ advertisements.

It placed the message inside competitors’ cars.

Credits

Dashboard Billboards (2022). Škoda Sweden, Sweden. Agency and design: NORD DDB Stockholm. Chief Creative Officer: Andreas Dahlqvist. Executive Creative Director: Simon Higby. Creative Directors: Hanna Stenwall and Anna Salonen. Art Directors: Josefina Norén, Teodor Nisbel Fjäll and Lovisa Zelioth. Copywriters: Fabian Luthander, Viktor Einarsson and Tuva Lindvall. Strategy Director: Albin Gustafsson. Director: Julius Hayes. Production: House Agency. Miniature Artist: Christopher Robin Nordström. Media partner: JCDecaux. Awards: Guldägget Gold, Cannes Lions Silver in Media, The One Show Silver Pencil and four Merits.