Half of the adult population in Brazil spend more money than they actually have. It's a serious problem, because millions of people end up accumulating debts, which affects their entire lives. With that in mind, Santander, one of the biggest banks in the world, wanted to help people take care of money from an early age so they can prosper in the future. The objective was to find a way to teach kids about money in a way that they could understand and, more than that, in a way that they could enjoy it.

We brought the animals printed on Brazilian money bills to life and let them do the talking. In partnership with Gloob, the largest kids' channel in Brazil, we created a TV series called Money In Specie, starring the animals printed on the national money bills to teach financial literacy to children. The six-episode show taught the most important financial lessons in a fun way, in dialogues between the animals experiencing specific situations. From saving your allowance to financial planning, kids learned important things about money. And it was all driven by the insight from the Brazilian money bills.

Although kids are not so interested in learning about money, there's something printed on Brazilian money bills that every child loves: animals. There's the turtle printed on the R$ 2 bill, the red macaw on the R$ 10, the jaguar on the R$ 50, and so it goes. So, that was our insight: to use those animals as characters in a playful way to teach financial literacy to kids. To develop the characters and the storytelling of the TV series, we took into consideration the maturity of kids from 6 to 10 years old, approaching them with financial topics and speaking their language. To do so, we had a pedagogue and financial consultant working side by side with us the whole time.

So far, all the episodes have reached 5.6 million kids and their parents across Brazil, also appearing 400 times during commercial breaks (half of them during prime time commercials) on channels like Gloob, GNT, Viva and YouTube. The kids learned things like: how to save their allowance, how money goes from one account to another, a bit about financial planning and much more. Money in Specie is a first big step of a growing educational platform by one of the biggest banks in the world, to keep helping kids take care of their money as they grow up that we intend to evolve to new seasons, gaming experiences and more.