Agency founder David Penn (pictured) said that “everyone is after viral ads now” after the success of campaigns such as comparison site Compare the Market’s ‘Compare the Meerkat’ and Cadbury’s drumming gorilla.

“The marketing world has shifted irrevocably from the traditional ‘interrupt and persuade’ rational model of advertising to a place where a meerkat fan club can set a brand alight,” said Penn. “Most research tools are blunt instruments when it comes to contagious, emotional response and sometimes miss the truly great ads.”

To track an advert’s buzz potential using AdSpark, Penn says a respondent could be asked to control animated characters around an office watercooler. In the case of the Compare the Meerkat advert, a meerkat will appear above the watercooler and users populate the screen with characters, depending on how much buzz they think the advert will create.