When you’re in an business as fast-paced as ours, it’s nice to stop and reflect on what we’ve accomplished together. Over the past 12 months, we continued to use strategy, creativity, collaboration and storytelling to help our clients find solutions to their brand and business problems. We added to our team and our client list, said a few goodbyes, and tried some new things.
Here are some of the highlights of another year of moving forward together.
We made some exciting announcements
A new era has officially begun. In November, Banfield announced Timothy Jones was taking over the role of President, and Véronique Gravel was assuming the role of Director of Client Services, with Nancy Webb appointed our CEO. We’re all pretty pumped about the direction we’re heading.
In other news, we made Lindsay Gavey our Director of Marketing Strategy and shared that Digital Director and Partner Kelly Rusk was accepted into the Forbes Agency Council.
We blew up a car (seriously.)
And it was just as awesome as you’d think! On a deserted Toronto backlot in the middle of a frosty November night, we shot a technically complex spot for Public Safety Canada’s drug-impaired driving campaign — a serious issue that tends to ramp up during the holiday season.
The spot really came out looking great. The car? Not so much. For even more window-smashing action, check out the behind the scenes video.
We started some exciting new partnerships (and grew some others!)
Banfield made several significant additions to our client roster this year, and we couldn’t be more excited. CMHC selected Banfield as its Agency of Record — and we’ve already helped them with several initiatives, including the National Housing Strategy. We started work with House of Commons, National Trust for Canada, Envirocentre, and the Ottawa Montesorri School, among others.
We were pleased to extend our relationships with Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED), the Royal Canadian Legion, Export Development Canada (EDC), Hydro Ottawa and Ipsos.
We honoured a true Banfield legend
After 40 years as perhaps the most endearing member of the Banfield family, we bid farewell to the man, the myth, the legend: William “Bill” Joiner. It’s hard to articulate how much Bill has meant to our company and to all who know and love him — but we gave it the ol’ college try. In his four decades with Banfield, he was a true artist with larger-than-life personality to match.
Mary Hunter also retired this year. Her work in quality control was always impeccable and she will be dearly missed around the office.
We welcomed new experts into the Ban-fold
We were happy to add Digital Marketing Strategist Mark Brownlee to the Banfield team this year. His background also includes journalism and communications, so he is a well-rounded and very welcome addition.
And he wasn’t the only one. Every bit as welcome were Account Executive Lucy Thériault, Media Coordinator Stephanie McCleave, and Junior Creative Writer Liz Jackson. We’re confident we have the right team to keep knocking it out of the park in the years ahead.
We got serious about health
Even more serious, that is. Building on our considerable experience in the health care sector, we were able to start new relationships with Health Canada and the Health Standards Organization (HSO). We grew our relationship with the Canadian Medical Association through their 150th anniversary initiatives, the Canadian Medial Protection Agency by branding Saegis, a member of the CMPA family, and did even more work with the Canadian Pharmacists Association and the Stem Cell Network.
We also helped the WSO makes World Stroke Day 2017 a global success. Do you know how to spot a stroke FAST? You really should.
We traveled the world with our clients
Our work for national and global clients really took us places this year! As one of Nokia’s trusted global creative agencies, we were invited to participate in Nokia Agency Day in Espoo, Finland. Nancy Webb, John Charette and Kristal Felea all made the journey — and were glad they did!
We also grew our presence in the U.S. with work for several clients including March Networks, SES, iDirect Government and Orbcomm, created a global campaign for World Stroke Organization, and sent people across Canada for both CMHC and a joint initiative for Heritage Canada and Ipsos.
We won some awards we’re proud of
As Banfielders, we pride ourselves on consistently delivering award-calibre work. When we submit for awards and win, it is a very gratifying bonus. That was the case when we received an International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) Gold Quill Award for EDC’s Ocean Rodeo Social Media Campaign.
We also won a National Silver Leaf Award of Excellence from IABC Canada for the 2016 Royal Canadian Legion Poppy campaign led by our Digital & Social Strategist, Jessica Kovar.
We had some good times
With great people! This holiday season, we packed 35 Armstrong with roughly 200 clients, partners and vendors for the second annual Banfield Holiday Happy Hour. The HHH featured DISH-catered food, cocktails, a MDRN photo booth, and artist Dan Martelock live-painting an amazing whale mural.
We also kept things merry and bright with our own Christmas party, and a whole bunch of Banfield Fun Days throughout the year.
We tried out some pretty cool stuff
In our industry, you need to keep up with the latest trends and new tech. This year, Banfielders went for a VR experience to try out the immersive technology first-hand. We also used AR with Hydro Ottawa for their Chaudiere Falls site app, we created a branded snapchat filter also for Hydro Ottawa), elevated our Facebook Live game for Place d’Orléans Shopping Centre, and worked on a chatbot and mobile in-app game experience for Public Safety Canada — both firsts for Banfield.
And that’s just a sampling of what we got up to in a pretty eventful year. Your move, 2018.