Ottawa-based agency Banfield is celebrating a milestone: 50 years in business.

The shop was established by Max McFadden and Bruce Hiney in 1973, with a local car dealership named Dilawri Motor Sales among its first clients. In the half-century since then, it has grown into one of the country’s oldest independent agencies.

Banfield has since evolved into a bilingual, full-service agency with capabilities spanning the entire marketing and advertising ecosystem, including research, media and strategy, creative design, writing and production, motion and video, and digital marketing.

The agency is marking its half-centenary by rolling out a 90-second video called “Forward Together.” The video celebrates the agency’s heritage, while remaining focused on what’s next.

“Being in a smaller market requires us to hustle more and be more resourceful,” says president and creative director Timothy Jones. “It really keeps us hungry—not only in trying to compete outside our market, but also against the big agencies that come to Ottawa to compete against us.”

According to Jones, being located outside of Canada’s major advertising centres has helped it cultivate a reputation for doing things a little differently. But he adds that the agency has also never lost sight of the traits that got it where it is today: innate curiosity, a sense of fun, and a gritty determination to roll up its sleeves and get to work.

“In our industry, you always have to keep moving forward or someone will pass you,” Jones says. “So we’re always looking ahead. It’s not only a way of thinking, but also a way of working.”

The mid-sized agency comprises 38 staffers, led by Jones, as well as VP, director of client services Véronique Gravel, senior writer Derrick Outram and motion director Ryan Grevatt.

The agency already has a full docket of work planned for a diverse roster of clients, including the National Arts Centre, for which Banfield and Ethnicity Matters were named AORs for creative, media and overall branding last fall, Public Safety Canada, Health Canada, and global CPG, Reckitt.