The strategy: In 2023, U.S. Bank launched a nontraditional campaign to promote Asistente Inteligente, its bilingual Spanish voice assistant that debuted the prior year. The bank co-produced “Translators,” a documentary highlighting the challenges faced by millions of children who act as translators for their immigrant families, particularly in financial matters, per Storyboard 18.

The 20-minute film premiered at festivals before screening at community centers, colleges, local sporting events, churches, and U.S. Bank branches. At showings, attendees could share personal translation stories in sound booths. All aspects of the campaign, including its website and creative materials, were presented in both English and Spanish.

The impact: The campaign generated 16.7 billion earned impressions, nearly 1,000 media placements, and over 500 million social engagements. It also prompted a 220% increase in Asistente Inteligente usage and boosted U.S. Bank's brand awareness by 13 points and consideration by 10 points.

Our take: This campaign was a masterclass in purpose-driven marketing that doubles as a long-term business strategy. Many financial institutions (FIs) often overlook or superficially address underbanked and immigrant populations. But the GDP of US Latinos is the second-fastest-growing in the world, next to that of consumers in China, per think tank Latino Donor Collaborative. And 25% of US consumers ages 18 and under are part of the Latino community—offering smaller FIs an opportunity to combat their “age problem.”

In the past year alone, multiple banks have implemented strategies to better reach Latino households, including cooking and financial literacy classes and local partnerships. But gaps persist:

• About 10% of Hispanic households were unbanked in the US as of 2023, per the FDIC. By comparison, under 2% of white households were unbanked.

That means there’s still an ample gap for FIs to close. Targeted products and out-of-the-box marketing campaigns like “Translators” can help.