Evidence

Reports, validation studies, and articles — see what Chorus produces and how the method holds up.

Birla Opus Paints 30s ad evaluation — 10 Indian personas, score breakdown across eight rubrics
Report 10 personas

Birla Opus Paints 30s Ad — Indian Persona Evaluation

Apr 30, 2026

10 Indian personas score Birla Opus's airport launch ad. The 16-year warranty hooks attention; the 'Main bhi' crowd undermines belief. Overall 53/100.

  • Strong attention capture (16-year warranty hooks every persona within 3 seconds)
  • Bandwagon 'Main bhi' execution backfires with analytical and rural viewers
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Full creative-testing dashboard cover — grid of charts showing per-persona signals, scene heatmap, and timeline overlay for the Birla Opus 'Main bhi' airport spot
Report 10 personas

Birla Opus Paints 'Main bhi' — Full Creative-Testing Dashboard

Apr 30, 2026

Chorus's 10-persona creative-testing dashboard for Birla Opus's April 2026 'Main bhi' airport ad — emotion arc, per-persona signals, scene heatmap, and timestamped edit suggestions.

  • Attention peaks at 0:14–15 (1.0/1.0) on the wide crowd shot. The ad's measured visual climax sits squarely on the proof mechanic the panel found least convincing.
  • Three cross-persona convergence beats: warranty claim at 0:03 (0.98 agreement), 'Main bhi' chorus reads theatrical at 0:08 (0.91), Aditya Birla brand reveal restores trust at 0:23 (0.89).
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Full creative-testing dashboard cover — grid of charts showing per-persona signals, scene heatmap, and timeline overlay for the ITC Mangaldeep 'Sixth Sense' spot
Report 10 personas

ITC Mangaldeep 'Sixth Sense' — Full Creative-Testing Dashboard

Apr 29, 2026

Chorus's 10-persona creative-testing dashboard for ITC Mangaldeep's April 2026 'Sixth Sense' ad — emotion arc, per-persona signals, scene heatmap, and timestamped edit suggestions.

  • The 0:54 smell-reveal moment is the single highest-agreement beat across all 10 personas (0.98) — universally read as the strongest emotional payoff.
  • Four cross-persona convergence beats: relatable opening lie, smell reveal, dignified CSR cut, brand close — agreement scores 0.76 to 1.00.
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ITC Mangaldeep 'Sixth Sense' 90-second ad evaluated by 10 Indian personas across rural and urban demographics
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ITC Mangaldeep 'Sixth Sense' Ad: 79.6/100 Across 10 Indian Personas

Apr 29, 2026

10 Indian personas spanning rural UP, Bihar, Rajasthan and metro India rate Mangaldeep's 90-second CSR ad at 79.6/100 — cultural fit strong, brand recall weak.

  • Cultural appropriateness scored highest (consensus across all 10 personas) — temple setting, Hindi banter, samosa-and-cricket scene read as authentic across rural and urban viewers
  • Brand recall is the soft spot — Mangaldeep logo only appears at 1:16 of a 1:30 ad, creating drop-off risk for digital-first viewers
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Full creative-testing dashboard cover — grid of charts showing per-persona signals, scene heatmap, and timeline overlay for the Burger King 'There's A New King' spot
Report 12 personas

Burger King 'There's A New King' — Full Creative-Testing Dashboard

Apr 20, 2026

Chorus's 12-persona creative-testing dashboard for Burger King's 2026 'There's A New King' — emotion arc, per-persona signals, scene heatmap, and timestamped edit suggestions.

  • The 0:32 'we fell off' admission is the single highest-agreement moment across all 12 personas (0.98) — widely read as bold, credible, trust-building.
  • Five cross-persona convergence beats spanning the full arc: transparency pivot, customer-complaint board, mascot firing, fresh-prep montage, closing turnaround plan — agreement scores 0.72 to 0.98.
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Two parallel focus group panels — one Maharashtra/Central India with 9 personas, one Kerala with 7 personas — discussing evolving food choices
Report 16 personas

A Focus-Group Revisit of Our Kumar 2022 Food-Choice Replication: All 10 Phase 2 Sub-Themes Recovered, Plus 4 New Frames From Group Dynamics

Apr 20, 2026

A follow-up to our Kumar et al. (2022) food-choice replication. Two moderated focus groups with the same 16 synthetic personas we used in the interview pass — Maharashtra and Kerala panels. The group format recovered all 10 of Kumar's Phase 2 sub-themes and surfaced 4 additional frames on top.

  • A moderated focus-group format with the same 16 synthetic personas from our Kumar 2022 interview replication recovered all 10 of the paper's Phase 2 sub-themes — including advertising and media, which our interview pass had not surfaced
  • Using the same 16 personas across both formats isolates method from panel. Any thematic difference between the focus-group pass and the interview pass is attributable to research method alone, not to who participated
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Two parallel focus group panels — one Maharashtra/Central India with 9 personas, one Kerala with 7 personas — discussing processed foods
Report 16 personas

Replicating a Peer-Reviewed Food Study — Phase 1 (Processed Foods): Two Synthetic Focus Groups Recovered All 3 Themes and Surfaced 5 More

Apr 20, 2026

A replication of Kumar et al. (2022) Phase 1 — two focus groups on urban Indian middle-class perceptions of processed foods. 16 synthetic personas matched to Kumar's criteria (age 40-65, college-educated, white-collar, no medical/nutritional background). Recovered all 3 Phase 1 themes and surfaced 5 additional frames on top.

  • Two moderated focus groups with 16 synthetic personas recovered all 3 of Kumar et al.'s Phase 1 themes — conceptualization of processed foods, types of processed foods, and factors associated with their use
  • The focus-group format surfaced 5 additional frames on top of Kumar's 3 themes — the 'helps cooking vs replaces cooking' distinction, a gray-zone middle category with bread as its boundary object, health-halo skepticism, the grandmother-recognition test, and backup-to-routine normalization
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Validation study cover — side-by-side visualisation of an emotional arc trace next to a persona-panel score grid, illustrating the convergence between Chorus's creative evaluation and System1's 3.8★ read on the Burger King 'There's A New King' spot
Report 12 personas

Validating Our Creative Read Against System1: Same Dip-Then-Rise Arc, Panel Converges at the 0:32 Self-Critical Pivot, Independently Measured

Apr 18, 2026

Chorus validation study: on Burger King's 2026 'There's A New King', our 12-persona panel landed 0.80 against System1's 3.8★ — same dip-then-rise arc, our panel converges at 0.98 on the 0:32 self-critical inflection Ewing's Ad of the Week editorial centers on.

  • System1 rated the spot 3.8★ with Exceptional Spike and Fluency. Our 12-persona panel landed at 0.80 composite (pass). Directional agreement on a recent, publicly-scored ad.
  • The moment-by-moment trace reproduced System1's described mechanism: sadness at 0s → nostalgic joy → disgust/anger/fear through the accountability beat → intense joy at the rebirth.
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Side-by-side comparison of the original Kumar 2022 food study and our synthetic persona replication, with the replication shown as a larger circle containing 8 persona avatars and richer thematic coverage
Report 22 personas

Replicating a Peer-Reviewed Food Study — Phase 2: 22 Synthetic Personas Matched 9 of 10 Sub-Themes, and Surfaced 6 Frames the Paper Didn't Document

Apr 9, 2026

We replicated the Phase 2 interview protocol of Kumar, Kulkarni & Rathi (2022) with 22 synthetic personas. Matched 9 of the paper's 10 Phase 2 sub-themes and surfaced 6 additional frames the paper's analysis didn't cover.

  • The deep analytical pass covered 9 of Kumar's 10 Phase 2 sub-themes — 8 fully matched, 1 in adjacent form (weighted: 8.5 / 10 = 85%)
  • On top of that, 6 additional frames surfaced that were not documented in the paper's analysis — including Gulf food culture, medical-KPI diet governance, and 'pure veg' marketing as caste exclusion
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Gillette We Believe The Best Men Can Be advertisement screenshot
Report 9 personas

Gillette 'We Believe' Advertisement - Focus Group Research

Mar 11, 2026

Audience panel on Gillette's 'We Believe' toxic masculinity ad. 9 perspectives, 35 questions, 6.4/10 overall. Strong message clarity, weak conversion pathway.

  • Overall score 6.4/10 with deeply polarized sentiment — 44% negative, 22% very positive
  • Brand recall (9.5/10) and message clarity (9.0/10) scored highest — everyone remembers it, everyone understands it
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SVEDKA 'Shake Your Bots Off' Super Bowl 2026 AI-generated robot advertisement screenshot
Report 8 personas

SVEDKA 'Shake Your Bots Off' Super Bowl 2026 - Focus Group Research

Feb 25, 2026

Audience panel on SVEDKA's Super Bowl AI robot ad. 8 perspectives, 27 questions, 5.7/10 overall. Uncanny valley undermines trust despite near-perfect brand recall.

  • Overall score 5.7/10 — near-perfect brand recall (9.3) but critically low emotional resonance (3.7)
  • Uncanny valley effect universal — every persona experienced discomfort at robot faces, drinking sequence, and sparking ending
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Hims & Hers Super Bowl commercial 'Sick of the System' screenshot
Report 12 personas

Hims & Hers Big Game Commercial - Focus Group Research

Jan 15, 2026

Audience panel on Hims & Hers' 2025 Super Bowl ad 'Sick of the System.' 12 perspectives, 29 questions, 6.7/10 overall. Strong emotional impact but trust concerns.

  • Overall score 6.7/10 with 50% positive, 17% neutral, 33% negative sentiment
  • CTA visibility near-perfect (9.5/10) - brand impossible to miss
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Coinbase musical theater video advertisement screenshot
Report 7 personas

Coinbase Video Advertisement - Focus Group Research

Jan 9, 2026

Audience panel research on Coinbase's musical theater crypto ad. 7 perspectives, 32 questions, 7.1/10 overall score. See what resonated and what fell flat.

  • Overall score 7.1/10 with 86% positive/very positive sentiment
  • Brand differentiation and memorability scored highest (8.4-9.0/10)
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