Evon Burton on the Power of Storytelling in Pharma Marketing

What makes a story truly resonate?

Evon Burton is Associate Director of Patient Marketing at Bristol Myers Squibb, where he leads integrated initiatives that connect brand strategy with real patient needs, blending data-driven insight, cultural fluency, and regulatory rigor. An accomplished marketing and communications leader, Evon has more than a decade of experience driving patient and consumer-centered strategy across biotech, pharmaceutical, nonprofit, and cultural sectors.

In this episode, Evon joins Kristen to unpack the role of storytelling in pharma marketing and communications.

Watch or Listen to the Episode

Watch the full episode here or listen to it on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

The Big Idea: Stories Convey the Moment That Changes Everything

Evon explains that meaningful stories follow a clear before-and-after trajectory: who someone was before, a pivotal moment they experienced, and what happened after. In pharma, that pivotal moment is often tied to how a treatment helps someone move forward in their life, though Evon emphasizes that the treatment is just one part of a larger journey.

In his work, he prioritizes looking beyond patients’ conditions to understand them on a deeper level: What are they doing when they’re not thinking about the condition? What do they wish they could do but can’t? Critically, he places patients—not the brand or product—at the center of the story. The role of marketing, he explains, is to show how a product can contribute to a patient’s shift from before to after.

“Everybody wants to encounter some type of pivotal moment that makes their life better. When I was a nonprofit communications professional, that pivotal moment might have been a service that an organization offered. It might have been a diagnosis from an HIV test. It might have been getting housing so that you can go to school. There's always that pivotal moment that someone has.”

Evon Burton

Associate Director of Patient Marketing at Bristol Myers Squibb

Key Takeaways

Stories follow a before-and-after structure: who someone was before, the pivotal moment they experienced, and who they became after.

Understanding what patients do outside their illness reveals what truly matters—and helps inspire more relevant, motivating communication.

Framing pharma products as part of a broader journey increases credibility and aligns with how people actually make decisions.

Effective storytelling requires ensuring subjects feel safe, prepared, and empowered—not pressured or exposed.

In regulated environments, marketers must balance a deep understanding of patient needs with strict limits on what they can offer or claim.

Statements like “I just want to help people” lack clarity; impact comes from specifying how and why you provide value.

Ways to Connect with Evon

If you’d like to connect with Evon, you can do so here:

Evon’s LinkedIn

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