For nearly 100 years, The American College of Financial Services trained financial professionals behind the scenes — partnering with names like Charles Schwab, New York Life, State Farm and Edward Jones. Then in October 2025, the institution did something it had never done: talk directly to consumers. The campaign, “Specialists Need Specialists Too,” was built by Big Com out of Birmingham, Alabama — and it turned a century of institutional credibility into a sourdough bread joke that lands.
The brief nobody saw coming
Jared Trexler, Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer at The American College of Financial Services, describes the challenge: financial services is a sea of generalists, many masquerading as specialists. Of the 256 designations recognized by FINRA, most consumers can’t name one beyond CFP. The college wanted to change that — not by lecturing, but by making people smile.
“Our desire to go direct to the consumer is a way to live out our mission,” Trexler says. “We’re informing and empowering that consumer to choose an advisor with education from the American College.”
Finding funny in finance
The tone was everything. Humor in financial services is a tightrope — lean too far and you’re belittling someone’s life savings. Shannon Harris, Executive Creative Director at Big Com and the first woman to hold the role in the agency’s 28-year history, knew the team needed shared vocabulary before they ever touched a script.
So they watched director reels together. Laughed together. Found camaraderie in what made them all lean forward rather than cringe. “I thought it was important, if we’re going to collaborate as a group, that we all understand each other’s sense of humor,” Harris says.
Sourdough beats preference
The creative North Star — “specific expertise for a specific life” — led to metaphors that were strange enough to be interesting but universal enough to be relatable. Sourdough baking. Beekeeping. Hobbies people adopted during the pandemic and never put down.
In creative testing, a competing concept narrowly won on preference. But the sourdough spot, where a woman specializes in sourdough bread but frets about her retirement, was 15% better at breaking through clutter, more memorable, more engaging and more effective at creating urgency. Harris and team simplified the concept, dropped a backstory about the character being an architect and let the talent breathe.
The two women cast as the leads met for their fitting the day before the shoot, ended up at dinner together and discovered they’d attended the same acting workshop in LA. They spent the evening building their characters together. Birmingham hospitality doing what it does.
Why an indie got the call
Trexler’s team wanted a partner with the same entrepreneurial scrappiness as a 100-year-old institution doing something for the first time. Big Communications fit that mold — but the gut feeling went deeper. “We were on calls with a group of powerful, competent female leaders,” Trexler recalls. “At the end of the day, it was gut. Breaking bread and having a cocktail with Shannon and team affirmed the decision.”
Bees are next
A second spot — featuring live bees, a 90-degree Birmingham morning and a greenhouse that had to be abandoned for a potting room — drops April 27. Harris had found the greenhouse in Birmingham Home & Garden magazine. “It was my fixation,” she admits. “Then they called and said it’s over 100 degrees in there. We’re not going to get the performance.”
The potting room turned out better. Things tend to work out that way when the people in the room trust each other.
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