For millions in the U.S., not speaking English can be a barrier to a better life. Only 23% of immigrants from Spanish-speaking countries speak proficient English, but this increases to 94% for their grandchildren’s generation.

For everyday tasks like grocery shopping to more complicated tasks like banking and navigating the education and healthcare systems, being able to speak English means being able to live and prosper. Because of this, millions of non-English speaking adults are forced to rely on children to translate everything from healthcare to legal documents to the family’s finances. It’s a big burden for a little kid.

Yet, in a country where the Hispanic community is the largest and fastest-growing minority group with over 42 million native Spanish speakers, the banking industry offers limited access to non-English speakers.

U.S. Bank saw this as a barrier and following their brand mission of making banking more accessible for all, was inspired to act in a meaningful way that would lead to access to better tools and services for this underserved population.

Empowering this community extended love of the brand and gave millions of people independence and the power to take control of their finances.

Building trust in the banking category is hard. Building trust with a minority segment in the banking category is even harder. U.S. Bank was no exception. Brand metrics like “brand I trust” or “makes me feel valued” were down significantly with Hispanics. Our research repeatedly showed frustration that banks only want to “sell me their products” or they put “profit before people.”

U.S. Bank’s mission is to make banking more accessible for everyone. As part of our strategy, we wanted to provide access to better tools and services for underserved populations – especially first-generation, Spanish-speaking Americans.

We didn’t want to sell them another product. We wanted to close the language barrier which in turn would close the opportunity gap.

When Asistente Inteligente launched, instead of making an ad, we made a documentary that told the story of child translators.

We engaged with local nonprofits and community leaders who told their own stories of resilience, joy and opportunity. We sparked a movement that went way beyond the product to a national conversation around language and making banking more accessible to all.