Use Cases
Where emotional truth changes the brief.
EchoDepth Insight is applicable wherever a research or testing interaction involves a human response to a stimulus — product, message, concept, experience or question — and the stated response is unlikely to reflect the genuine feeling.
Pharmaceutical research
The pharma research context is uniquely vulnerable to self-report failure. Patients dealing with serious illness, HCPs managing professional presentation, caregivers overwhelmed by complexity — none of them can accurately describe what they genuinely feel in a moderated discussion or a rating scale. EchoDepth Insight captures this through FACS facial analysis and VAD scoring — measuring the involuntary physiological signal that language cannot reach.
- Patient journey — diagnosis through treatment and adherence
- HCP engagement — clinical data response, brand positioning
- Drug messaging and communication testing
- Packaging and device design response
- Clinical trial participant experience
- Marketing material evaluation and recommendation
Scenario: DTC ad emotional test
A treatment ad is tested with 20 patients. Self-report: 78% say the ad makes them feel "hopeful." EchoDepth data from the same session:
Scenario: Three-pack concept test
FMCG & consumer goods
Consumer goods research is plagued by the "interesting but wouldn't buy" gap. Participants describe concepts as interesting, novel, different — precisely because those are the safest social responses in a group or moderated setting. The genuine emotional response — the one that predicts purchase — stays hidden.
EchoDepth Insight captures the involuntary physiological response — scored as Valence, Arousal and Dominance (VAD) using FACS facial analysis — that precedes the decision to articulate. This reveals which concepts generate genuine desire, which generate curiosity without intent, and which generate concealed indifference.
- Packaging concept and design testing
- Brand identity and repositioning evaluation
- New product introduction research
- Advertising and campaign pre-testing
- Shelf presence and retail environment response
- Price point emotional reaction
Deep-dive available
Six FMCG research applications, four scenario examples with live VAD data, and a full methodology breakdown — in the FMCG research guide.
Explore FMCG Research →Concept & Idea Testing
When a concept is new, participants have no reference point for their response. Traditional methods ask them to describe the indescribable — an emotional reaction to something they've never encountered. The result is word association and analogy, not genuine response data.
EchoDepth functions as qualitative research software and concept testing software that captures genuine emotional response at first exposure — before any rationalisation or articulation — and ranks concepts by real desire signal, not stated preference.
EchoDepth captures first-exposure emotional response — the moment before any rationalisation or articulation has occurred — providing the only reliable signal of genuine concept resonance.
- First-exposure concept emotional capture
- Sequential concept test with carryover analysis
- Concept elements (name, visual, proposition) isolated testing
- Segmentation — emotional response by target audience
Advertising & creative testing
Ad pre-testing with second-by-second emotional curves. Know exactly which second of your video creative lands, which triggers concern, and where attention drops — before the campaign goes live.
Post-campaign testing with emotional baseline comparison. Measure whether your campaign has genuinely shifted emotional response to the brand, or merely increased recognition without connection.
- Second-by-second emotion curve across video
- Static creative and print ad evaluation
- Audio and voiceover emotional response
- Pre- and post-campaign emotional shift measurement
Healthcare communication & devices
Healthcare communication must work at the moment of highest emotional charge — diagnosis, prognosis, treatment options, self-administration instructions. Traditional testing occurs in calm research conditions and produces calm research responses. EchoDepth captures emotional response at the moment of stimulus exposure.
- Patient information leaflet comprehension and anxiety
- Self-injection and device usability emotional response
- Diagnosis and prognosis communication testing
- Digital health and app interface evaluation
- Remote patient monitoring experience research
Important framing
"EchoDepth Insight does not diagnose individuals. It measures the involuntary physiological markers accompanying emotional state during a research session. All decisions on research interpretation, recommendation and action remain with qualified researchers and client teams."
This framing is built into every EchoDepth Insight deployment. Read our ethics position →
People & Culture
Organisation culture measurement
People and culture leaders need data that goes beyond what employees are willing to say. Read: Culture survey vs emotional AI → EchoDepth captures what they actually feel — applying emotional AI scoring to every open-text response to surface masked dissatisfaction, suppressed frustration, and genuine cultural strengths that self-report alone will never reveal.
The output is a board-ready culture health report with a structured risk register, severity ratings, verbatim evidence, and a 180-day action programme — built for people and culture leaders who need to move a board, not just an HR team.
Full culture measurement deep-dive →
Key signals from a recent anonymised-dataset dataset
Text–emotion divergence detected
"I feel we need to consider colleague wellbeing more."
Contemplation 0.51 · Disappointment 0.29 · Doubt 0.18 — scored high-risk
Client perspective
"Using EchoDepth from Cavefish allows us to validate ideas quickly, minimising the risk of launching a product or idea."
Gethin Thomas
CEO, Iterate
Events & Trade Shows
What visitors feel at your stand — not just where they stopped.
Footfall counts measure presence. Post-show surveys measure recall. EchoDepth measures genuine emotional response at the moment it occurs — which stands, demonstrations, and presentation moments actually moved your audience, before any social filter shaped what they said about it.
From exhibition stand effectiveness and product demo analysis to conference audience response and investor day intelligence — EchoDepth Insight provides the emotional signal layer that no existing events measurement tool can reach.
First-exposure resonance — the genuine emotional response in the first 500ms of stand approach
Demo moment analysis — which product features drive interest peaks and which trigger confusion
Conference audience response — how your presentation statements land before any question or reaction
Intra-day optimisation — morning session data feeds afternoon stand adjustments in real time
Typical events applications
B2B trade shows & exhibitions
Stand zone engagement mapping, dwell quality analysis, product demonstration effectiveness across visitor segments.
Conferences & keynotes
Audience emotional response curves across presentations — identifying which statements, data, or narrative moments genuinely landed.
Investor days & analyst briefings
How the audience responded to guidance figures, strategic announcements, and management presentations — before any question or market reaction.
Consumer brand activations
Experience journey emotional mapping — distinguishing genuine brand affinity from Instagram-worthy but emotionally shallow interactions.
Your research challenge isn't listed?
If your use case involves a human responding to a stimulus and you suspect the stated response doesn't reflect the genuine feeling — we should talk.
Book a Discovery Call