Copy, keywords and audience are refined against live search behaviour while the test runs, so the read sharpens week on week instead of being fixed at launch.
Back to all proofs
From 7 problem spaces to a market-validated proposition in 3 weeks
Client
Date
Fortune 500 P&C insurer
08/2026
The challenge
A Fortune 500 property and casualty insurer wanted new propositions built around a strategic theme tied to its own aging customer base. Exploration of that kind ran 6 to 9 months on qualitative panels, internal workshops and stated-preference research, so the theme would either consume a multi-quarter programme or quietly stall.
The solution
FifthRow deployed its Market-to-Concept Engine: a strategic theme in, market-tested value propositions out, with human checkpoints at every major decision. The tested positioning, messaging, audience and channel mix come back with the result rather than being worked out after it.
3 weeks
theme to validated proposition10x
better cost per leadCycle time, theme to proposition6 to 9 months typical, 3 weeks here
Narrowing achieved7 spaces, 200 ideas, 10 concepts, 3 tested
Consumer sign-ups47, on under $1,000 ad spend
Sign-up conversion6.1% in week one, 27% by week three
The theme was broken into structured problem spaces grounded in market evidence, so the team could see where the real consumer pain sat before committing to any one direction.
Core Activities
- Decomposed one theme into seven distinct problem spaces
- Established the pain points and segments each space affects
- Built a "why now" rationale per space
- Grounded each space in market evidence, not opinion
- Kept all seven in play, compared rather than chosen upfront
The Results
A structured map of one theme, with the pain points, segments and timing rationale attached to each space. Ideation started from evidence about where consumers actually hurt rather than from a workshop whiteboard.
7
problem spaces compared, not chosenA wide pipeline of venture ideas was generated across all seven spaces and then narrowed on scored criteria, so what was dropped was as defensible as what advanced.
Core Activities
- Generated 200 venture ideas across the mapped spaces
- Linked every idea to the space and pain point behind it
- Scored and ranked each, with a written "why this wins" rationale
- Selected the top ten for enrichment on those scores
- Broke the pipeline's dependency on analyst time, brainstorming and consultant-led research
The Results
Two hundred scored ideas with traceable reasoning, narrowed to ten. The insurer entered concept work with a ranked pipeline rather than a shortlist assembled from whoever was in the room.
200
ideas ranked down to 10Ten ideas were developed into full concepts, and three were given live, market-facing pages so real consumers could respond to them rather than to a description in a deck.
Core Activities
- Developed all ten into full concepts: user, value proposition, business model, route to market
- Prioritised three for live testing
- Generated a landing page per concept with a measurable sign-up funnel
- Set email sign-up as the conversion action, so interest meant action
- Stood all three up in parallel, read against each other
The Results
Three live consumer-facing pages, each carrying a different proposition from the same theme, ready to take paid traffic. The comparison was set up before a single dollar of media was spent.
3
concepts live within daysIntent-matched search traffic ran to all three pages over three weeks. The decision was made on what consumers did, not on what a panel said it would do.
Core Activities
- Drove intent-matched search traffic, measured impression to sign-up
- Refined copy, keywords and audience between weeks against live data
- Captured impressions, clicks, CTR, cost per click, engagement, sign-ups and acquisition cost
- Benchmarked every metric against published category data, not expectations
- Returned a separate call per concept, not one pass or fail
The Results
A clear winner, a middle case and a clear underperformer, separated on real behaviour. The winner beat published category benchmarks on click-through, cost per click, conversion and cost per lead, and left behind the messaging and audience profile that produced those numbers.
47
sign-ups, not stated intentWhat it proved
One theme became seven problem spaces, 200 ranked ideas, ten enriched concepts and three live tests in about three weeks. The strongest drew nearly 5,900 impressions and 612 clicks, returning 47 sign-ups on under $1,000 of the company's own ad spend, at a blended $13.35 per lead. Cost per sign-up fell from $21.61 in week one to $6.99 in week three, and conversion rose from 6.1% to 27%, as copy, keywords and audience were refined and traffic narrowed to qualified search intent.
The spread mattered as much as the winner. One concept drew demand at roughly twelve times the winner's acquisition cost and one underperformed across the funnel, so the insurer came away with three calls: advance, refine, deprioritise, each backed by observed behaviour. Internal team time across the testing window was five or six hours. What the company kept was a tested messaging architecture and audience profile for launch media, 47 consumers with registered interest available for willingness-to-pay work without recruiting anyone, and a validation system that points at the next theme by changing its inputs.
Results
| Metric | Benchmark | Result | Improvement |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cycle time, theme to proposition | 6 to 9 months of panels and workshops | about 3 weeks | Months compressed to weeks |
| Cost per lead | $132.95 published benchmark | $13.35 blended | ~10x better |
| Conversion rate | 3.11% published benchmark | 14.68% | ~4.7x better |
| Cost per click | $3.78 published benchmark | $1.18 | ~3.2x better |
| Click-through rate | 6.67% published benchmark | 10.29% | ~1.5x better |
| Evidence behind the call | 20 to 30 person panels, stated preference | 47 sign-ups from nearly 5,900 impressions | An order of magnitude larger, behavioural |
Several concepts run at once, so the result is a rank order with a clear advance, refine and deprioritise call rather than a single pass or fail.
A proposition is judged on what consumers do on a live page, not on what a recruited panel says it would do.
Each test returns the wording and the search intent that actually converted, so launch media starts from evidence rather than from a creative brief.
Everyone who signs up is a consumer who registered real interest, available for willingness-to-pay work without recruiting a panel.
Testing a proposition costs little enough that several run in parallel, so a weak one is stopped while stopping is still cheap.
From a standing start to an AI venture serving small businesses
Client
Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development (ADDED), in partnership with Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI)
Date
08/2026
2 weeks
no pipeline to 200+ screenedCutting a four-month research cycle to six weeks across five validation workstreams
Client
$25B+ US energy & home-services company
Date
08/2026
6 days
intake brief to ranked reportFor Enterprises
ProofSee all
From a standing start to an AI venture serving small businesses
From 72 patents to 4 commercialisation-ready technologies
Cutting a four-month research cycle to six weeks across five validation workstreams
From a weekly newsletter to a self-running innovation radar
A full year's validated-concept target, met in the first quarter
A utility innovation lab that answers its own questions in a day
Finding the next high-growth US metro in five days
FifthRow – The Agentic Consultancy
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