• by Tyler Loechner  @mp_tyler, June 19, 2012

Redwood City-based Rocket Fuel, an “artificial intelligence advertising solutions” provider for digital marketers, Monday announced it was named one of the Bay Area’s top workplaces. Only 75 workplaces in the Bay Area received the honor.

With 81 employees at the time of submission, Rocket Fuel qualified for the “small companies” category. They ranked 19^th out of 35 small companies. The company now has 200 employees. The rankings were determined by an anonymous survey of over 1 million employees nationwide, which was conducted by WorkplaceDynamics and local publishers.

Rocket Fuel has won several awards in recent years, including being listed as #22 on Forbes' "America's Most Promising Companies 2011." Richard Frankel, president and co-founder of Rocket Fuel, said, "This is the first workplace award we have received. We're thrilled, because we really strive to make Rocket Fuel a fun, challenging, and intellectually stimulating place to work."

Frankel describes Rocket Fuel as "an open-door kind of place, where anyone and everyone is encouraged to share their ideas and opinions." Rocket Fuel plans to maintain its desirable work environment by continuing to hire the "smartest, most creative people in the industry," said Frankel. Every new Rocket Fuel employee goes through a week-long training process in which they learn the ins and outs of the company.

A positive "work-life balance" at Rocket Fuel, as Frankel puts it, is encouraged. "We have food truck Fridays," said Frankel. "[We have] lots of company parties and BBQs, [and] celecreate just about every holiday possible." The work environment has paid off, as Rocket Fuel was not only named one of the best places to work in the Bay Area, but was also recently recognized by the San Francisco Business Times as the best Marketing and Communications Company 2012.

“Winning this award is an especially great honor because our own employees bestow it upon us,” said George John, CEO of Rocket Fuel in a statement. “We’re on a mission to be the best media partner our customers work with and the best company our employees work for.”

The full list of top workplaces in the Bay Area can be found at mercurynews.com.