Stephen Neale recognized as an industry ELITE

Stephen Neale’s creative influence has propelled brands to global recognition and shaped the creative for an industry that once relied on molecules, charts and heavy content. Now he’s been chosen as one of the most influential people in the healthcare industry, achieving the 2016 PM360 ELITE  Award. Neale is SVP, executive creative director for AbelsonTaylor, the world’s largest independent agency of record in the US.

The PM360 ELITE (Exceptional Leaders, Innovators, Transformers and Entrepreneurs) Awards was established to recognize those who have made a significant impact to the healthcare industry throughout their careers.

PM360 cites Neale as “the creative driver behind some of the most memorable campaigns in medical advertising history, pioneering new creative territory.” He did just that with the first award-winning campaign he led in 1993. The balloon campaign, which depicts the discomfort of an enlarged prostate as a water-filled red balloon, lifted medical ads out of their sameness and changed the medical advertising field forever. Two decades later, the campaign was inducted into the Medical Advertising Hall of Fame.

Neale continually encourages creative teams to push the envelope. Under his leadership, the agency has won more than 130 creative awards in healthcare advertising, including CLIO Awards, Global Awards, and awards from Medical Marketing & Media, The Rx Club, DTC National, Manny Awards, and many others. .

He graduated with a bachelor of fine arts degree in visual communications at the Herron School of Art at Indiana University. He joined AbelsonTaylor in 1988 and has been helping brands make a human connection ever since. He lives in Western Springs, Ill., with his wife and daughter.