UI/UX Design
Santander and Champions League
A sticker album every Brazilian grew up with, rebuilt inside a banking app and taken from brief to proposal in two days.
To comply with my non-disclosure agreement, I have omitted confidential information, results and oversimplified this case. All information is my own and does not necessarily reflect the views of Santander.
Overview
Santander Brasil, a subsidiary of Banco Santander, is a major player in Brazil's financial landscape, offering retail and commercial banking, asset management, insurance and investment banking.
Leveraging global expertise, the bank has earned the trust of millions, providing tailored solutions and innovative services in the dynamic Brazilian market.
A big opportunity, with no time to waste
A UEFA partnership created a compelling business opportunity for Santander, but a tight promotional calendar left us just two days to turn the idea into something tangible.
How the project appeared
While working in-house for Santander on a collaborative project with Mastercard, an opportunity came up for a partnership with UEFA: promote the Champions League in Brazil while encouraging the use of our Santander credit card.
The catch was the calendar. We already had a promotional schedule inside the app, and the only available slot was the following month.
Why two days, not two weeks
Santander is a large bank with multiple approval processes and stringent compliance guidelines. For the delivery to be possible at all, those internal procedures had to start immediately, which meant there had to be something concrete to review.
My challenge was to deliver a tangible proposal, with the team, in two days.
The business opportunity
Brazil is a vast country, deeply passionate about football. According to a study by the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF), football contributes a total of R$ 52.9 billion to the country's economy. Exploring this market presented a promising business opportunity.
Two days, three people
We needed to execute the project at an unprecedented speed. To achieve this, I assembled a lean team of three: two designers and a product manager.
Keeping the group small was the first design decision. Fewer people meant no handoffs between us, one conversation instead of three, and the ability to move from research to a decision inside the same room. The two days below are the same work described above, laid out in the order we did it.
Discover & define
from a blank page to one concept.
- Framing the opportunity
Understanding what the partnership had to achieve on both sides: promote the Champions League in Brazil for UEFA, and drive credit card usage for Santander. The partnership budget was the fuel for the rewards.
- Desk research
We delved into extensive desk research, focusing first on Brazilian football and the way the country lives it, and then diving deep into the Champions League itself.
- Brainstorming and sketching
A single working session where the research turned into ideas on paper, fast and disposable.
- Iterating the drafts
We iterated multiple drafts until we found a concept that seemed promising, one that connected the competition to something Brazilians already loved.
A clear direction to move forward.
Design & prototype
from one concept to something reviewable.
- Product strategy into a mechanic
Turning the concept into rules a compliance team could read: what earns a sticker, what a sticker is worth, and what the customer wins.
- Experience design
Streamlining the promotion into a straightforward flow, so the rules could be understood by using it rather than by reading it.
- Visual design
Dressing the flow in the language of the sticker album, so the reward reads as a collectible the moment it appears.
- Micro-interactions and motion
The moments that carry the metaphor: earning a sticker, revealing it, and placing it. Motion here is what makes a screen feel like opening a pack.
- Prototyping
Assembling everything into a tangible proposal: the artifact that let the bank's approval and compliance processes begin on schedule.
Ready to share with stakeholders.
Identification and nostalgia
The concept of the “prize sticker” was a fusion of the beloved football stickers that have been part of every Brazilian's childhood for decades, reimagined in the context of the Champions League.
It gave the promotion something a discount can never have: a form people already know by heart. Nobody needs to be taught what a sticker is, what it means to get a repeat, or why the next one is worth chasing.
As simple as child's play
We streamlined the process into a straightforward flow, emphasizing a “learning by doing” approach to understanding the promotion.
With the budget from the partnership, our goal was to incentivize credit card usage through rewards. For every R$ 100.00 spent, users received a sticker.
Results
The outcomes stayed inside the bank. Compliance policy keeps them off this page, but I am glad to walk through what happened in a conversation.
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