McKinney Named to Fast company’s Best Workplaces for Innovators

September 10, 2024

Creative, media and influencer agency McKinney was honored at the 2024 Fast Company 100 Best Workplaces for Innovators awards reception last evening. This award recognizes organizations that demonstrate an inspiring commitment to encouraging and developing innovation at all levels, shining a light on McKinney as having one of Fast Companies Top 100 most innovative company cultures.

“It’s quite an honor to have Fast Company recognize that we’re fostering a creative culture at McKinney on par with some of the world’s most innovative companies,” said Joe Maglio, CEO of McKinney. “I love that this particular award honors the employees driving innovation for our clients and our business. Congratulations to the McKinney teams across all of our offices on this well-deserved recognition.”

The 2024 Best Workplaces for Innovators list ranks 100 winners from a variety of industries, including entertainment, biotech, consumer packaged goods, marketing, education, healthcare, and many more. To earn Best Workplaces for Innovators recognition, all of this year’s winners completed an application that addressed questions about projects, investments, company-wide programs, and workplace culture.

“Innovation is a global priority that cuts across all industries, and this year’s list reflects that diversity,” says Brendan Vaughan, editor in chief of Fast Company.

McKinney is being honored for its employee-driven approach to AI, including the AI Taskforce leading the agency’s AI exploration, experimentation and implementation. By building a private AI server, or “AI Playground,” the Taskforce offered a protected environment for agency-wide experimentation.

“The best practices, top vendors and guest speakers and cutting-edge initiatives that our AI Taskforce have brought to the table benefit everyone at McKinney, from our Media and Health practices to our Strategy, Creative and Account teams,” said Gretchen Walsh, President of McKinney. “Investing in and empowering the humans driving the AI Taskforce has been critical to growing our agency’s capabilities and helping our clients stay ahead of the curve.”

The AI Taskforce has produced several exciting innovations at McKinney over the past year, including “Are You Blacker Than ChatGPT,” a provocative game launched in time for Black History Month that sheds light on how AI bias can manifest in AI technology. Another outcome has been a new client offering called BrandAI, a proprietary tool that helps clients measure the amount and quality of the attention they’re getting in the competition for minds, culture and wallets.

Read more from Fast Company here.