CommPRO.biz Editorial TeamThe Variable, a business growth company based in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, is now a three-time Small Agency of the Year. Ad Age, the leading global advertising news publication, named The Variable its Southeast Small Agency of the Year – Silver, the company’s third Small Agency of the Year recognition in the last four years.The Ad Age annual awards recognize the nation’s best advertising agencies with 150 or fewer employees based on innovative creativity, impact on clients’ businesses, evolving the agency business model, and financial performance. There are more than 120,000 advertising agencies in the United States. Only 29 were selected for the 2018 awards.“A few years ago, we evolved the ad agency business model to combine the thinking of a management consultancy with the doing of an advertising agency, and we’ve brought together a ridiculously talented team from different backgrounds to deliver it,” said David Mullen, partner and president at The Variable. “We help our clients drive growth by creating real value for their companies, their people and their customers through sharp business strategies, innovation roadmaps, indifference-fighting advertising, and engaging experiences and content.”According to The Variable, the secret behind its model and the results it’s producing for clients is its core conviction that creativity holds the answers to overcoming challenges and creating new opportunities.“Receiving this honor three times in the last four years is a tribute to our agency’s founding belief that advertising itself is not dead, but a process that results in only advertising is,” said Joe Parrish, partner and chief creative officer at The Variable. “We are deeply rooted in the truth that creativity delivers new possibilities and solutions, and we unleash the power of creativity on more than just ad-like objects, including new business models, product and service concepts, and experiences.”The Variable counts a number of local, national and global brands among its partners, including Lowes Foods, Char-Broil, BASF, P.F. Chang’s, Duke Health, Biscuitville and TIKI Brand. Since 2014, the company has experienced significant growth and quadrupled in size.“Being named a Small Agency of the Year our first time in 2015 was amazing recognition that we were on the right path and winning again in 2017 was fantastic validation,” added Mullen. “But to win again in 2018, our third time in four years, is proof that our team is doing something incredibly special. And it’s another piece of evidence added to all of the other evidence happening around us that proves Winston-Salem companies punch well above their weight class – regionally, nationally and globally. We’re really honored and humbled to a part of that.”The Variable also recently launched a sister company called 100watt, a business accelerator that provides outsourced commercialization to founders who have an idea and capital, but not the time or flexibility to create it. 100watt is launching its first two new companies over the next three months, with a third launching in the fourth quarter.