ING Belgium's 2016 film 'Skateboarders', created by Serviceplan Benelux, tells Victor's story to position the bank as an enabler of personal ambition, not just
ARCHIVEING Belgium Backs a Skateboarder's Dream in Its 2016 Brand Film
ING Belgium's 'Skateboarders' is a 2016 brand film that follows Victor, a young man whose skateboarding project becomes the narrative vehicle through which ING positions itself as a bank that supports individual ambition and personal goals, rather than simply offering financial products.
Published in Belgium in December 2016, the campaign was created by Serviceplan Benelux and produced by Caviar. It consists of a single film asset, making it a focused, craft-led brand story rather than a multi-channel campaign push. The objective is clear: to shift how Belgian audiences perceive ING, from a transactional institution to a partner invested in the aspirations of its customers. By anchoring the film in skateboarding — a pursuit defined by persistence, creativity, and self-direction — ING signals an affinity with people who set goals and pursue them on their own terms. The Belgian market in December 2016 presented a banking sector navigating low interest rates and digital disruption, conditions that pushed banks to compete on emotional relevance as much as product features. In that context, 'Skateboarders' represents ING's attempt to build brand meaning through human storytelling rather than rate comparisons or service claims. The Clapboard Score for this campaign is 56 out of 100, reflecting its creative intent and production quality against the absence of documented industry awards or published performance metrics, according to Appalshoparchive.
ARCHIVEING Belgium's strategic premise rests on a straightforward insight: people do not dream about their bank, they dream about what their bank might make possible. The 'Skateboarders' campaign operationalises that insight by centring the brand story on Victor's personal project rather than on any financial product. The positioning — ING as an enabler of customers' goals — is consistent with how challenger banks and digitally native financial brands were beginning to communicate across Europe in the mid-2010s, forcing established retail banks to rethink their emotional proposition.
The timing in Belgium reflects broader sector pressures. According to PwC, global banking revenue growth slowed to approximately 3% in 2016, driven by low interest rates and weak economic momentum — conditions that compressed the traditional income lines Belgian retail banks relied upon. In that environment, brand differentiation through values and storytelling carried strategic weight that product-led advertising could not easily replicate. PwC also reported that banking executives anticipated a 25% decline in customers using branches during the years following 2016, reinforcing the urgency for banks to build digital and emotional relevance simultaneously. For ING Belgium, a brand film that speaks to personal ambition addresses both pressures: it builds affinity with younger, mobile-first customers while asserting a brand identity that transcends any single channel or product category. The choice of skateboarding as the film's subject is deliberate, connecting ING to a youth culture of self-determination that sits some distance from conventional financial advertising in Belgium.
The film follows Victor and his skateboarding project, using the discipline and determination that define the sport as a visual and emotional metaphor for the kind of goal-driven mindset ING claims to support. On screen, Victor is shown pursuing his project with commitment — the camera capturing the physicality and rhythm of skateboarding as an expression of personal ambition rather than spectacle. The narrative builds around the idea that behind every goal, however unconventional, there is a story worth telling and a person worth backing.
Direction was handled by Bob Jeusette, with cinematography by Sander Vandenbroucke, whose work gives the film its visual character — grounding an aspirational story in observational, credible imagery. The production company was Caviar, a company with an established track record in craft-led advertising film. The creative team at Serviceplan Benelux was led by Executive Creative Director Sam De Win, with creatives Nicholas Sterckx and Jan Leenders developing the campaign concept. Executive producer Eva Van Riet and producer Andreas Vermeulen oversaw production, with account responsibilities held by Pierre-Antoine Van Wijmeersch. The collaboration between Serviceplan Benelux's strategic creative direction and Caviar's production capability produced a film that prioritises atmosphere and character over hard-sell messaging — a tonal choice consistent with ING's broader positioning as a bank aligned with personal progress rather than institutional authority.
No verified performance data for 'Skateboarders' is publicly available. No published sales lift, market share movement, brand tracking results, or media reach figures have been documented in connection with this campaign. No verified Cannes Lions, Effie, One Show, D&AD, Clio, or Webby awards have been identified, and no reviews from trade publications including Campaign, Ad Age, Adweek, The Drum, or Jstor.contagious.com/en" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Contagious have been recorded.
Structurally, the campaign is built for brand effect rather than direct response, which means its impact would have been most visible in brand perception metrics — consideration, trust, and affinity — rather than in short-term conversion data. The single-asset format concentrates the campaign's investment in one piece of storytelling, a choice that depends heavily on media placement and distribution strategy to achieve reach in the Belgian market. The film's emotional architecture — an individual, a goal, a bank that believes in both — follows a proven model for financial services brand building, one that The Financial Brand has identified as increasingly central to how banks compete for relevance with younger demographics. Without audience data, the campaign's effectiveness remains a matter of creative assessment. Its Clapboard Score of 56 out of 100 reflects that position: competent, purposeful filmmaking in service of a coherent brand idea, without the documented results that would confirm its market impact in Belgium.
ING Belgium's 'Skateboarders' is a 2016 brand film built around Victor's personal skateboarding project. The film positions ING as a bank that supports individual ambition and personal goals rather than acting solely as a financial products provider, connecting the brand to themes of self-determination and persistence through sport.
Bob Jeusette directed the 'Skateboarders' film for ING Belgium. Director of photography Sander Vandenbroucke handled cinematography. The film was produced by Caviar, with Serviceplan Benelux serving as the agency, led creatively by Executive Creative Director Sam De Win and creatives Nicholas Sterckx and Jan Leenders.
The 'Skateboarders' campaign was published in Belgium in December 2016. It was created by Serviceplan Benelux for ING and consists of a single film asset. The campaign launched during a period of significant pressure on Belgian and European retail banking, characterised by low interest rates and growing digital competition.
No verified awards for the ING 'Skateboarders' campaign have been identified, according to Waypoint Ing. No wins or shortlists from Cannes Lions, Effie, One Show, D&AD, Clio, or Webby have been documented in connection with this Belgian film campaign from December 2016, and no major trade publication reviews have been recorded.
Serviceplan Benelux built the campaign on the insight that banking's emotional value lies in enabling customer goals rather than delivering financial transactions. By anchoring the brand story in Victor's skateboarding project, the agency connected ING Belgium to youth culture and personal ambition, repositioning the bank as a partner in its customers' lives.
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