Here at the agency, we do category-defying, intelligent, zig-when-everybody-else-zags type work. But we can’t blow minds and make advertising you talk about without a tightly defined strategy. No strategy means run-away, irrelevant creative. And that’s about as cool as jean shorts.

Our new campaign for Van Kampen Investments and the Alabama State Treasury Department provides a good example as to how we work. First, our task: create a campaign for the 529 college savings plan product that increases enrollment. After conducting research, studying previous efforts and competitive/peer/aspirant work, many internal strategic meetings and client meetings, we arrived at our strategy–the CollegeCounts 529 Fund is a smart gift.

That’s it. Seems really simple, right?

All solid strategies are simple, but as you know, simple takes some doing. Simple requires eliminating, distilling, the stripping away of anything unnecessary. We could’ve arrived at the “invest in your child’s future” strategy, or some other been-done-a-thousand-times thought. Instead, we looked at what kids tend to get when they are young, and most of it winds up in the trash. Or stuck up their nose. Or breaking in five minutes. This isn’t about not giving your grandchild a big wheel. (We’ve got no beef with the big wheel.)  It’s about giving him or her something a little smarter than that.

So the campaign, in a nutshell, uses humor to position the college savings plan as a smart gift by juxtaposing it against unwise gifts given to children. Exaggeration is key to pulling off the humor. Why humor? We liked going with that tonality for several reasons. Not a lot of financial brands are using it right now, people like and remember funny advertising and humor communicates confidence. In this economy, confidence is everything.

Here’s the first spot, called “Knives.” In it, a couple explains to their child’s grandfather that giving to his education would be smarter than giving him a knife-throwing set. We’re betting most will agree.

And here’s the second spot, “Nuclear,” in which a father is reminded of what happened when he ordered plutonium off the Internet for his son’s science kit.

The production itself was beautifully and smoothly executed. We were lucky to work with Sam Crawford and MOM Worldwide, Melissa Larson, Technicolor, editor Adam Svatek at Beast, LA and several other incredibly talented people. Here are some great behind-the-scenes production photos.

Many thanks to all of the hard-working and brilliant people at Red Square. From media planning, negotiation and placement to the strategic development, to public relations (which is now working in overdrive), this is a great collective effort.

We hope you enjoy our gift to investment advertising. It’s been and continues to be fun.