The National Arts Centre (NAC) has chosen Banfield and Ethnicity Matters as its agencies of record for creative, media and overall branding.

Banfield is an independent creative agency based in Ottawa and Ethnicity Matters is a strategic consultancy turned marketing agency focused on multicultural audiences.

The two agencies were selected after they pitched together at a public tender for the account. They will now join forces to develop relations with new NAC audiences while encouraging the return of current ones. The agencies will also work to ensure more diversity and inclusion are brought to the Centre’s stages and spaces, a strategic priority for the organization.

Diversity initiatives will focus on race, people living with disabilities, gender and sexual orientations, age and socioeconomic backgrounds.

“There is a lack of awareness around the centre – communication efforts have historically not reached diverse audiences,” says Banfield president and creative director Timothy Jones. He adds that the agencies will work toward making the NAC be perceived as a more welcoming space in a “meaningful way. “

Banfield had previously been NAC’s AOR from 2007 to 2017, when NAC picked Orkestra and Ressac as its new agencies. Now that it is back on board, Banfield has recruited Ethnicity Matters to “bring a unique mainstream lens to the multicultural opportunity, and the unique multicultural lens to the mainstream opportunity.”

The agencies have put a transition plan in place with the previous AORs to avoid any service gaps, as NAC has ongoing programming.

This account marks a second recent win for Banfield in national branding, and culture and tourism destination marketing. The agency was just named AOR for Ingenium, which includes the Canada Science and Technology Museum, Canada Aviation and Space Museum, and the Canada Agriculture and Food Museum.

Featured image by Thelongdarkteatimeofthesoul.