How ING and TBWA\NEBOKO Turned Fraud Prevention Into a National Conversation
ING's 'Check the call' is a 360-degree campaign launched in the Netherlands in March 2025, created by TBWA\NEBOKO, that drives public awareness of the bank's in-app 'Check het gesprek' verification function — a tool allowing customers to confirm in real time whether an incoming call genuinely originates from ING.
The campaign arrived at a precise moment of public need. Bank-helpdesk fraud — in which criminals impersonate bank employees to extract account credentials or authorise fraudulent transfers — represents one of the most persistent financial crimes targeting Dutch consumers. ING's response was not simply a communications exercise. The bank had already developed a functional countermeasure: an in-app feature enabling customers to verify suspicious calls instantly. 'Check the call' is the campaign that brought this tool to national attention, translating a technical capability into an accessible, emotionally resonant message for everyday banking customers across the Netherlands.
Deployed across television, online video, social media, and ING-owned channels, the campaign operates as a fully integrated 360-degree effort. Production involved a coalition of specialist companies — Better Call Sol, MAKE, Kapsalon, and De Grot — alongside media agencies Initiative and DEPT®, as reported by Adformatie Nl. Photography was handled by Bibian Bingen, with music composed by MassiveMusic. The breadth of that production infrastructure signals ING and TBWA\NEBOKO's intent to reach Dutch audiences at every touchpoint, from primetime television to the bank's own digital ecosystem. Clapboard Score for this campaign: 72/100.
ING identified a specific and growing consumer anxiety as the strategic foundation for this campaign. Bank-helpdesk fraud is not an abstract threat in the Netherlands — it is a documented, recurring pattern of criminal behaviour that erodes customer confidence in telephone banking interactions. The 'Check het gesprek' function, introduced prior to the March 2025 campaign, directly addressed that anxiety by giving customers agency: rather than guessing whether a caller was genuine, they could verify it instantly through the ING app, as reported by Nieuws Ing Nl.
The strategic insight driving the campaign is that a security feature only delivers value if customers know it exists and understand how to use it. TBWA\NEBOKO's task was therefore as much behavioural as it was communicative — to shift customer habits by making verification feel natural, achievable, and even empowering. The campaign frames the act of checking a call not as a sign of distrust toward the bank, but as a sign of personal resilience against criminals. That reframing is significant. It positions ING not merely as a financial institution but as an active partner in customer protection, differentiating the bank in a Dutch retail banking market where competitors including Rabobank and ABN AMRO also compete on trust and digital service quality.
The Dutch banking sector sits within a broader European context of rising digital fraud. The campaign's timing in March 2025 aligns with increased regulatory and consumer attention to financial crime across the Netherlands. By anchoring its message to a tangible, already-deployed product feature rather than a general safety pledge, ING and TBWA\NEBOKO built a campaign with credibility at its core — the feature existed, the fraud data supported its deployment, and the narrative followed the evidence.
TBWA\NEBOKO constructed the creative around a film-led narrative designed to dramatise the moment of fraud in a way that is recognisable to Dutch banking customers. The central creative device makes the criminal's manipulation visible — showing viewers exactly how bank-helpdesk fraud unfolds — before presenting the 'Check het gesprek' function as the decisive intervention. This approach transforms a passive public safety message into active dramatic storytelling, giving the audience both identification with the victim and a clear path to protection.
Ruben Balfoort, owner of Commercialreview, described the work as 'de best bedachte commercial in tijden en zeer pakkend om criminelen te kakken te zetten,' as reported by Marketingtribune Nl — a characterisation that speaks to the campaign's clarity of intent and its willingness to name the adversary directly. The creative does not soften the threat or retreat into abstract safety language; it confronts the fraud scenario with specificity and confidence.
Production across the campaign involved four companies — Better Call Sol, MAKE, Kapsalon, and De Grot — reflecting the demands of a genuinely integrated 360-degree output spanning broadcast film, online video, social formats, and owned-channel content, as reported by adformatie.nl. Photographer Bibian Bingen contributed to the campaign's visual identity across still formats, while MassiveMusic provided the audio landscape that carries the film's emotional register. The involvement of media agencies Initiative and DEPT® ensured that creative assets were distributed and optimised across the full Dutch media ecosystem, from national television to targeted digital placements. TBWA\NEBOKO has served as ING's Dutch lead creative agency since September 2022, as reported by adformatie.nl, and this campaign represents a mature expression of that partnership's accumulated strategic understanding of the ING brand and its customers.
ING's own reported data provides a clear picture of the 'Check het gesprek' function's effect before the March 2025 campaign formalised its public profile. Bank-helpdesk fraud among ING customers fell by 43% in 2024 following the feature's introduction, according to nieuws.ing.nl. That figure represents a material reduction in criminal harm to real customers in the Netherlands, not a projected or modelled outcome.
Customer sentiment data reinforces the structural case for the campaign's existence. According to nieuws.ing.nl, 78% of ING customers reported that the 'Check het gesprek' function made them feel more resilient against fraudsters — a statistic that validates the behavioural ambition at the heart of TBWA\NEBOKO's strategy. Resilience, not merely reassurance, was the intended outcome, and the self-reported data suggests the function delivered it before the campaign even launched.
No independent third-party performance metrics for the March 2025 campaign itself — reach figures, view counts, or brand-lift studies — are publicly available at the time of writing. What the existing data does confirm is that the campaign was built on a product with a proven track record and deployed by an agency partnership with three years of accumulated brand knowledge. The 360-degree media architecture across television, online video, social media, and ING-owned channels provides structural breadth that maximises the probability of sustained behavioural change among Dutch banking customers. The campaign's Clapboard Score of 72/100 reflects strong strategic clarity and creative conviction, with room to grow as independent performance data emerges.
ING's 'Check the call' campaign promotes the bank's in-app 'Check het gesprek' verification feature, which lets Dutch customers confirm whether an incoming call genuinely comes from ING. Launched in March 2025 and created by TBWA\NEBOKO, the 360-degree campaign spans television, online video, social media, and ING-owned channels across the Netherlands.
TBWA\NEBOKO created the 'Check the call' campaign for ING. The agency has served as ING's Dutch lead creative agency since September 2022, as reported by adformatie.nl. Production involved Better Call Sol, MAKE, Kapsalon, and De Grot, with media handled by Initiative and DEPT® and music by MassiveMusic.
Bank-helpdesk fraud among ING customers fell by 43% in 2024 following the introduction of the 'Check het gesprek' function, according to nieuws.ing.nl. Additionally, 78% of ING customers reported the feature made them feel more resilient against fraudsters, per the same source, providing strong evidence of both behavioural and attitudinal impact.
ING deployed 'Check the call' as a fully integrated 360-degree campaign across television, online video, social media, and ING-owned channels in the Netherlands, as reported by adformatie.nl. Media agencies Initiative and DEPT® managed distribution, ensuring the campaign reached Dutch audiences across both broadcast and digital touchpoints throughout March 2025.
ING's campaign differentiates itself from Dutch competitors including Rabobank and ABN AMRO by anchoring its anti-fraud message to a specific, already-deployed in-app feature rather than a general trust proposition. This product-led creative strategy, executed by TBWA\NEBOKO, gives the campaign a credibility that broader brand safety messaging from rivals typically cannot match.
ING's 'Check the call' campaign receives a Clapboard Score of 72 out of 100. The score reflects strong strategic clarity — the campaign is built around a proven product feature with measurable fraud-reduction results — and confident creative execution by TBWA\NEBOKO, with scope for improvement as independent audience performance data becomes publicly available.
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