Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal published a fascinating article about Bradesco Bank’s newest strategy for reaching Brazilians in rural areas of the Amazon: putting a bank on a riverboat. The article describes how the bank’s manager goes out every two weeks and searches for new customers along the banks of the Amazon.

An excerpt: “Modest but steady growth in Latin America’s largest economy over the past decade has catapulted millions of poor Brazilians into the middle class. Launched in November by Banco Bradesco SA, operator of the country’s largest retail-banking network, the riverine effort shows how far into Brazil’s corners the changing economy will reach. The number of bank accounts in Brazil has tripled over the past decade, from just over 42 million in 1997 to nearly 126 million at the end of 2008, according to the Brazilian Banking Federation. Still, there are at least 50 million “unbanked” Brazilians out there.” [Read the full article here]

So I looked around, and it turns out there’s a great commercial that Bradesco made featuring the bank boat. Watch the video and see if you can answer the questions.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQHhruHg9fQ

Questions

1. How many new accounts were opened on the boat’s first trip?

2. What does Dionne, the student, want to do as a career?

3. What type of business does Lucila want to open?

Answers

1. 200

2. To be a teacher

3. To open a restaurant