AbelsonTaylor Caps Manny Awards with Fourth Agency of the Year Win

CHICAGO, May 11, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Illustrating the link between creativity and success, AbelsonTaylor, the world's largest independent healthcare advertising group, has been named Agency of the Year for the fourth time, making it one of the top winners in the history of the industry.

The latest award, sponsored by Med Ad News, was the culmination of the 22nd Annual Manny Award ceremony, held in New York and attended by more than 600 industry peers. Citing the agency's dramatic growth in 2010—when it was awarded 17 new brands, 11 of them without a full-blown pitch—the award paid tribute to AbelsonTaylor as the most outstanding healthcare advertising agency in the category of companies with revenue over $50 million. Sixteen other awards were presented earlier in the evening.   

Accepting the award, Dale Taylor, president and CEO of the 30-year-old agency, acknowledged the frequency of its Agency of the Year wins—one for every decade and one to grow on—and pointed to staff retention as the key factor in its success.

"The numbers speak for themselves," he said. "In the last ten years, we have more than doubled in size. Yet the majority of people who were here in 2001 are still here today, serving many of the same giant pharmaceutical companies and producing the outstanding work that is recognized by the awards."

In addition to being named Agency of the Year four times—three in the Mannys and once by Medical Marketing & Media—AbelsonTaylor has received more than 140 other awards, including several from the Rx Club and PM360.  Since 1996, it has won 11 times as Most Creative Agency, seven for Best Ad of the Year, four for Most Admired Agency and once for Most Feared Agency.

"My favorite is the Most Admired," Taylor continued.  "It confirms that our staff is known—and perhaps envied—throughout the industry. Morale is exceptionally high, at every level, which is why we have such low turnover."

Low turnover is part of the agency's credo.  "We became the world's leading independent healthcare agency by implementing a fundamental transformation in the  business model, allowing many of our employees to share in the ownership of the company and its successes.  That translates into a huge benefit for our clients, who keep coming back," said Jay Carter, Senior Vice President and Director of Strategy Services.  

AbelsonTaylor also won the 2011 Manny Award for Best Disease-Awareness Campaign.  The ads, designed to develop awareness of GERD as a principal cause of heartburn, show an electrical-looking stomach with dozens of switches, each one set to turn on acid production at different times of day.  

The largest independent healthcare agency in the world, AbelsonTaylor has quadrupled its staff over the past 15 years to more than 400 employees. The agency currently manages more than 60 brands, including some of the most powerful in history. AbelsonTaylor's address is: 33 West Monroe, Suite 600, Chicago, IL 60603. Phone: 312.894.5500. Fax: 312.894.5658, email: [email protected], website: www.AbelsonTaylor.com.

SOURCE AbelsonTaylor