La Primera Cuenta
Reaching customers who had spent their whole lives deliberately avoiding banks.
- Client
- Nubank
- Markets
- Brazil, Mexico, Colombia
The challenge
The brief was growth among adults with no banking relationship in São Paulo and Mexico City — a group the category talks about constantly and understands poorly. Prevailing research framed these customers as people who lacked access. Our interviews found something different: most had access and had made a deliberate decision to stay out, after an experience with fees, paperwork, or an institution that made them feel small.
The idea
We built the platform on a single uncomfortable admission: the problem was never the customer. La Primera Cuenta collected stories from people opening their first account after decades of cash, told without the usual soundtrack of triumph.
The strategy depended on product changes, and we said so before presenting creative — fee transparency and an account agreement a person could read in one sitting. The advertising simply reported what was true.
The results
- 340,000 new accounts opened in 9 months, 61% by first-time account holders
- Unprompted consideration among unbanked adults rose 22 points
- Average account-opening time fell from 48 minutes to 9
- Employee advocacy scores rose 31%, an unplanned outcome now tracked internally