BBVA Aprendemos Juntos: a success story.

Aprendemos Juntos 2030 is BBVA's branded content programme devoted to education, values and personal development. Started in 2018, by May 2026 it has surpassed 800 million cumulative views across all its formats — YouTube video, podcast, books, physical encounters in schools and educational platform. It is probably the most studied branded content case in Spanish-speaking communication faculties and a canonical example of how a financial brand can generate cultural value without talking about its product.

The interesting question is not whether Aprendemos Juntos is hidden advertising — strictly, it is not — but what strategic decisions BBVA took to get here. Those decisions are what you should understand if a Spanish company wants to build a branded content programme sustained over time.

What is Aprendemos Juntos and how is the programme structured?

Aprendemos Juntos is a multichannel editorial platform produced by BBVA's communications unit in collaboration with the newspaper El País (PRISA Group) and the audiovisual producer Trespor. The core of the programme is video-recorded interviews with international referents — thinkers, scientists, athletes, educators, artists — who talk about education, values and the good life, with families with children as their main audience.

The current catalogue includes:

• More than 400 interview videos on YouTube, with durations between 5 and 90 minutes. Guests like Elsa Punset, Mario Alonso Puig, César Bona, Yuval Noah Harari, Daniel Goleman, Mariano Sigman.
• Weekly podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and iVoox with 200+ episodes available.
• A book series published by Plaza & Janés collecting the most demanded interviews.
• In-person encounters with families in classrooms and auditoriums across Spain.
• A web platform with parenting guides, pedagogical sheets and free downloadable tools.

The annual budget of the programme is not public, but sector estimates published in the IAB Spain Branded Content Yearbook (2023) put it between €4 and €7 million annually, distributed across production, guest rights, distribution, platform and promotion.

Why did BBVA decide to invest in education and not in finance?

Choosing the editorial axis is the most important strategic decision of the programme. BBVA, a bank with a historical focus on families and small business, could have produced financial education content. The conventional hypothesis — "a bank talks about banks" — was the safest option. The reality is that it bet on something broader: education understood as a social good.

The strategic reasoning, according to the public explanations given by programme leaders in sector conferences (Spanish Leading Brands Forum, Madrid Branded Content Congress 2022):

1. The Spanish banking sector in 2018 carried a reputational damage from the 2008-2014 crisis. Producing financial content would have perpetuated the bank's association with a trust-troubled sector.
2. The priority target audience (families with school-age children) has the education of their children as their top declared pain, not money management. A brand that helps with the primary pain wins a stronger emotional association.
3. Education was a terrain where the bank had no direct competitors. Talking about finance, it would have clashed with CaixaBank, Santander or Sabadell. Talking about education, it occupied a free space.

This decision is a classic case of applying Theodore Levitt's marketing myopia principle: BBVA did not define itself as "a company that sells bank accounts" but as "a company that accompanies families in their important life decisions". From that definition, talking about children's education makes sense. From the first one, it does not.

What results has BBVA obtained with the programme?

BBVA has periodically published programme data in its annual reports and at sector conferences. The most relevant:

Metric	2018 (start)	2025 (last published)
Cumulative YouTube views	12 million	800+ million
YouTube channel subscribers	85,000	3.2 million
Brand favourability (BBVA panel)	baseline	+18 points vs. control
Sector awards received	3 (first year)	90+ cumulative
Countries distributed in	3 (Spain, Mexico, Colombia)	19 countries

Two figures deserve separate comment. First, the +18 points of brand favourability measured by BBVA's own panel: it is a much larger improvement than that generated by the bank's traditional advertising campaigns (3-7 points on average). Second, the cumulative reach: with an estimated cost of €4-7 M annually (≈ €35-50 M cumulative), the cost per thousand effective views (not impressions) is around €0.04-0.06. A prime time TV spot has an effective CPV between €0.08 and €0.15. In other words, BBVA's branded content is 2 to 3 times more efficient per unit of qualified attention than the bank's own classic advertising.

What operational lessons can be extracted from the BBVA case for other companies?

Seven lessons I commonly apply when advising companies designing their first branded content programme:

1. Choose the editorial axis with a service mindset, not a sales mindset. The programme's topic must respond to a real pain of the audience, not to a brand selling point. BBVA gave up talking about financial products to talk about what really worries families.

2. Commit to a minimum 5-year horizon. Impact branded content demands accumulation. Aprendemos Juntos was two years in production when it started to gain real traction (2020). A company that abandons the programme at 12-18 months loses almost all the potential ROI.

3. Produce with media-grade quality. Branded content competes with real editorial content for the user's attention. The production has to be equivalent. BBVA produces with professional television standards (cameras, sound, post-production).

4. Leverage editorial partners. BBVA produces with El País and Trespor, not on its own. Partners bring editorial credibility, reach, productive capacity and quality filter. Producing only from the brand tends to generate biased content.

5. Distribute across multiple channels. Video + podcast + book + physical encounter. Each format attracts a different audience segment and reinforces recall.

6. Measure the right thing. Aprendemos Juntos's main KPI is not click or conversion: it is brand favourability measured by panel. The brand assumes the programme generates long-term value, not short-term. Whoever tries to justify branded content with performance metrics (leads, sales) tends to cancel the programme too early.

7. Keep the brand discreet. The BBVA logo appears in header, credits and platform, but does not star in any content. The user receives the content's value and associates that value to the brand, without feeling sold.

"Aprendemos Juntos is not a marketing programme of the bank. It is an education programme financed by the bank. The distinction is semantic but strategic: it defines the editorial decisions, the tone and the limits of what the programme can or cannot do."

— Marta Burgués, director of the Aprendemos Juntos programme (interview in El Programa de la Publicidad, 2022)

How much does BBVA invest in Aprendemos Juntos and what percentage of its total budget does it represent?

The exact figure is not public, but combining estimates published by El Publicista, Marketing News and the IAB Spain Branded Content Yearbook, the reasonable range is €4 to €7 million annually with a growing trend. That amount includes:

• Audiovisual production (cameras, technical crew, direction, editing): 35-45% of the budget.
• Rights and fees of international guests: 15-25%.
• Distribution and promotion on platforms: 12-18%.
• Web platform maintenance and pedagogical materials production: 10-15%.
• Physical encounters and events: 8-12%.
• Management, editorial coordination and partners: 5-8%.

BBVA Spain's total communications and marketing budget was around €280 million in 2024 (El Publicista estimates). Aprendemos Juntos represents therefore between 1.5% and 2.5% of the total budget. It is a relatively moderate allocation for the reputational weight the programme has within the bank's overall brand strategy.

Can a small business replicate the Aprendemos Juntos model?

Not at that scale, but yes with the underlying logic. Aprendemos Juntos's strategic decisions — choosing an editorial axis of service, committing long-term, producing with quality, leveraging partners, measuring the right thing, keeping the brand discreet — are replicable at any scale. A Spanish SME can apply the same principles with a €30,000-60,000 annual budget if it picks the right format: a serious editorial newsletter, a niche podcast, a short YouTube series.

The prior question is one of definition. A company that has not solved Levitt's question about what need it actually satisfies will produce branded content about its product, which generates self-referential content with no traction. A company that has solved it can build a modest programme with the same logic as Aprendemos Juntos.

What relationship does Aprendemos Juntos have with other financial branded content cases?

The BBVA case has opened the path for other Spanish financial institutions to explore the discipline. Banco Santander with Cuanto Más Allá, the Rafa Nadal documentary premiered in 2022, is probably the most visible response. Other relevant initiatives:

• CaixaBank · Wivai. Editorial platform focused on freelancers and small business with practical content on management, taxation and digitalisation.
• Banco Sabadell · Hub Empresa. Editorial programme oriented to mid-sized companies with podcast, video and newsletter.
• Bankinter · Bankinter News. Editorial programme on economy and markets with own media production.
• ING España · Naranja. Editorial platform on personal finance with distinctive tone.

Compared with Aprendemos Juntos, these programmes tend to stay closer to the financial product. They are useful for their audiences but generate less earned media and lower relative brand lift. It is the difference between content about what we sell and content about what matters to our audience. The latter is where BBVA's canonical proposition lies.

What role does Aprendemos Juntos play within BBVA's digital transformation?

There is a reading of the programme that is often overlooked. Aprendemos Juntos is not only branded content: it is also a lever of internal digital transformation. To produce and distribute video at that scale, BBVA has had to build editorial, technical and measurement capabilities it did not previously have. Those capabilities, once installed, are also applied to the rest of the bank's communications: the app, the campaigns, communication with existing customers.

That is, the branded content investment pays double: directly via the measured reputational improvement, and indirectly via the digital maturity it brings to the whole organisation. This collateral effect is one of the most solid arguments to justify the investment before boards sceptical of short-term return.

What further reading is available to go deeper into the case?

For whoever wants to expand the study of the BBVA branded content case, I recommend four sources:

• The IAB Spain Advertising Investment Study (annual), with the official breakdown of the Spanish branded content sector.
• The book Branded Entertainment by Javier Regueira published by ESIC Editorial (2020), which studies several Spanish cases including BBVA.
• The Aprendemos Juntos YouTube channel, with direct access to the complete content catalogue.
• The talks of the Branded Content Forum organised annually by the BCMA association (Branded Content Marketing Association) in Madrid, where programme leaders publicly explain operational decisions.

If your company is considering launching a branded content programme and wants to understand which strategic decisions are replicable at your scale from the BBVA case, book a first session at no cost. In 45 minutes we review which elements of the Aprendemos Juntos model fit your situation and what realistic budget you would need to start well. And if you want to see the full framework of branded content as a discipline, this case is one of the most useful to understand the category.

Frequently asked questions

What is BBVA Aprendemos Juntos?

Educational initiative by BBVA launched in 2018, in interview format with experts in education, neuroscience and human development. More than 400 interviews published on YouTube and proprietary platform.

Why is Aprendemos Juntos good branded content?

Because BBVA does not appear as protagonist but as sponsor. The content has real educational value, verifiable expert authorship and premium format. The brand is associated with learning and trust, not with banking product.

How long is each Aprendemos Juntos video?

Between 30 and 90 minutes. It is long, deliberate-consumption content, not a viral clip. This bet on extended format is part of what differentiates Aprendemos Juntos from 90% of branded content in the market.

What KPIs does BBVA measure in Aprendemos Juntos?

Views, average viewing time, media coverage and, indirectly, brand sentiment. It is not a direct acquisition channel for banking customers.

Can a small business replicate Aprendemos Juntos?

Not at the same scale, but the underlying logic can be replicated. A Spanish SME can apply the same principles with a €30,000-60,000 annual budget choosing the right format.