Winston-Salem-based The Variable has joined an exclusive group of the world’s most forward-thinking organizations, including Google, Amazon, Diageo, Alibaba, Etsy, Nestlé and others as one of Fast Company’s 2020 Top 100 Best Workplaces for Innovators. Now in its second year, Fast Company’s annual list of the Best Workplaces for Innovators, created in collaboration with Accenture, celebrates companies creating bold experimentation and innovation, and empowering employees at all levels to develop new ways of doing business.
The Variable also becomes one of only two companies in the world to ever be named an Ad Age Small Agency of the Year (three times) and to be named one of Fast Company’s Best Workplaces for Innovators.
“The Variable combines the thinking of innovation consultancy with the doing of an advertising agency to drive real growth for businesses,” says David Mullen, president and partner at The Variable. “Brilliant advertising and experiences are critical, but they have to follow meaningful innovation. The two are inseparable. To fight indifference, companies must have a people-friendly innovation worthy of advertising.”
The Variable also develops new products, services and brands. It has created nine new companies in the last three years, including:
- Sunshine Beverages, a better-for-you, better-tasting energy drink created by The Variable that has since taken on private equity investment and recently celebrated more than 4.5 million cans sold through more than 5,000 retail locations.
- ROAMD, the first international network of concierge physician practices in the healthcare category.
- Patch, a startup that does for home repair what telemedicine did for healthcare.
- Kabook!, an extremely unique, technology-driven platform for creating the most epic children’s books that literally put your child in the book through customized copy and photo filters that match your child to the illustration style of the book.
By working to be anything but “just an advertising agency” and building a culture that fosters innovation in everything it does, The Variable has been able to draw incredible talent from cities like New York, Los Angeles and Chicago with backgrounds in innovation, startups, investment banking, strategy, branding, social and advertising to Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
Since September of 2018, the company doubled its team size, and in July of 2020 moved into a newly-built office space in the heart of downtown Winston-Salem’s Innovation Quarter.
For more information about The Variable and its inclusion on the Fast Company list of Best Workplaces for Innovation, see the full announcement on their website.