2026-02-15
Emma Fitzgerald
Design Dispatch, New York
Healthcare advertising has traditionally relied on clinical imagery, cautious messaging, and functional design. Xu Han is redefining these norms. As Art Director at Neon, a leading global healthcare agency in the Omnicom Health network, he integrates high-fashion sensibility, surrealist aesthetics, and advanced AI-driven workflows into pharmaceutical communications. His work demonstrates that health advertising can be both visually compelling and emotionally resonant, matching the impact of top consumer campaigns.
Han’s work has been recognized by leading industry platforms. He won The Creative Floor Award for Animation in the Any Medium Platform category, a highly competitive honor selected from international entries, and received six finalist nominations at the New York Festivals Health Awards in one year. His campaigns have doubled industry engagement benchmarks and generated hundreds of thousands of impressions, setting new standards for health communications. He was also named a D&AD Portfolio Winner, an honor for those redefining the future of advertising and design.
Han’s career includes work with luxury brands and global healthcare leaders such as Louis Vuitton, Audemars Piguet, Novartis, and Novavax. Transitioning from fashion to pharma, he has introduced multi-channel storytelling and AI-augmented creative workflows now adopted agency-wide. His work shows that healthcare advertising can maintain high creative standards while meeting compliance requirements, positioning him at the forefront of industry innovation.
As Art Director, Han led visual system design, AI workflow development, and multi-market execution for Novartis's "Sjögren's Sjöuts" campaign. The campaign earned three finalist nominations at the New York Festivals Health Awards, achieved a 76% engagement rate—double the industry benchmark—and was recognized by leading medical education platforms. This global initiative aimed to shift healthcare professionals’ perception of Sjögren’s disease from a condition associated only with “dryness” to recognition as a serious systemic autoimmune disease.
Inspired by Salvador Dalí’s surrealist visual language, Han created a campaign aesthetic that visualized the invisible, making the internal experience of autoimmune disease tangible and emotionally engaging for physicians. This approach challenged traditional healthcare advertising, demonstrating that artistic ambition and medical accuracy can coexist.
As Art Director, Han developed assets for a complex ecosystem, including materials for international conferences, diverse media channels, and country-specific adaptations across the United States, Germany, Japan, and other markets. The campaign used a 360-degree immersion strategy, building momentum before conferences, delivering comprehensive experiences at the ACR convention, and reinforcing key messages after the event. Han pioneered the use of AI tools to explore visual concepts during the planning phase, leading to an agency-wide session where he introduced AI-augmented creative concepting to colleagues.
The campaign exceeded industry benchmarks in all areas. Digital engagement reached 76%, double the standard, and high-value actions occurred at four times the expected rate. Conference presence led to a 24% increase in badge scans over the previous year, with a 32% interaction rate and a 5.4-minute average dwell time. The Sjögren’s Disease Foundation promoted the campaign in newsletters, and healthcare professionals shared content during the conference, encouraging authentic discussion.
Awards: New York Festivals Health Awards Finalist in Film Technique/Craft: Sound Design & Music; New York Festivals Health Awards Finalist in Film Technique/Craft: Direction; New York Festivals Health Awards Finalist in Film Technique/Craft: Production Design/Art Direction. Recognition: myCME & Haymarket Medical Education; Prime Continuing Medical Education; The Sjögren's Foundation.
Han’s leadership on Novavax’s “Build Different” campaign earned The Creative Floor Award for Animation in the Any Medium Platform category, along with three finalist nominations at the New York Festivals Health Awards. The campaign generated over 350,000 unique impressions on the brand website and aired during major sporting events on NFL, ESPN, and Big Ten Network broadcasts.
Han led visual direction for animated television spots and a comprehensive social campaign to communicate an alternative COVID-19 vaccine option. The campaign leveraged the passion and loyalty of sports fans, highlighting that both sports fans and the Novavax vaccine are “built differently.” By connecting with values of dedication, resilience, and community, the campaign positioned vaccination as something audiences could support, marking a breakthrough in healthcare consumer engagement.
Han pioneered the use of AI technology throughout the creative process, using it to shape and refine visual direction. This approach accelerated concept development while maintaining the high quality of his work. The campaign showed that healthcare advertising can achieve the cultural relevance and emotional impact often seen in consumer brands.
Awards: The Creative Floor Award Winner in Animation/Any Medium Platform; New York Festivals Health Awards Finalist in Film Technique/Craft: Sound Design & Music; New York Festivals Health Awards Finalist in Film Technique/Craft: Direction; New York Festivals Health Awards Finalist in Film Technique/Craft: Production Design/Art Direction.
Beyond individual campaigns, Han has become a thought leader in AI-augmented creative workflows for healthcare advertising. His approach uses AI to explore visual languages, accelerate concepting, and prototype quickly, reshaping how agencies handle pharmaceutical communications. Han’s framework has been adopted by multiple teams at Neon, setting a new standard for creative development. Processes that once took weeks now take hours, without compromising quality.
Han’s AI expertise was critical when Neon, in partnership with Artists for Action, quickly launched a campaign addressing gun violence as a public health crisis. “Not So Lucky” used AI-generated images of children with ear bandages to highlight that firearms are the leading cause of child mortality in the United States. The campaign won the Manny Award for Best Philanthropic Campaign, generated 7 million impressions and $38 million in earned media, and was shared by cultural figures such as Neil Rodgers, Rufus Wainwright, and Peter Gabriel. Press coverage included Variety, AOL, MM+M, PharmaVOICE, MedAdNews, Ad Age, Campaign, MediaPost, Little Black Book, Muse, and Best Ads.
“My strategic integration of AI tools has transformed me from an executor to a system builder,” Han explains. “Rather than using AI as a shortcut, I deploy it as a creative amplifier that generates concepts, visuals, and prototypes in hours instead of weeks. This approach has fundamentally reshaped how our teams develop award-winning work.”
Han’s background in high fashion continues to enhance his healthcare work. For Audemars Piguet’s “Seek Beyond” campaign in China, he combined multimedia online editorial experiences with offline launch events, generating over 40,000 editorial views and attracting more than 1,000 attendees. His redesign of Louis Vuitton’s perfume website, a multi-sensory digital environment, led to a 5% revenue increase in the Chinese market and contributed to 6.1 billion euros in regional sales. This luxury brand sensibility, with its focus on emotional resonance, visual sophistication, and immersive experience, is what healthcare advertising has long needed.
As U.S. healthcare and life sciences brands seek creatives who can bridge scientific complexity, cultural fluency, and emerging technology, Han offers a rare skill set well suited to this growing demand in the American market.
Han continues to lead AI innovation in healthcare advertising while remaining committed to the human elements that make creative work impactful. His philosophy reflects a belief in sustainable creative success: “Sustained creative success comes not from chasing recognition, but from committing fully to craft, collaboration, and care.”
Xu Han represents a new paradigm for an industry long constrained by convention. He has shown that healthcare advertising can match the visual ambition of luxury campaigns, the cultural relevance of consumer work, and the emotional depth that drives both metrics and minds. As pharmaceutical brands seek creatives who can bridge scientific complexity with compelling storytelling, Han leads the way in elevating healthcare advertising.
Xu Han is an award-winning Art Director at Neon, working at the intersection of healthcare storytelling, visual systems, and emerging creative technologies. His work spans global luxury brands including Louis Vuitton and Audemars Piguet, and purpose-driven healthcare campaigns for Novavax and Novartis. A D&AD Portfolio Winner, Creative Floor Award winner, and Manny Award winner, Han has earned multiple finalist nominations at the New York Festivals Health Awards. He continues to pioneer AI-augmented creative workflows that are elevating the standards of healthcare advertising.
