The new ADGist rating was developed to mimic how consumers see adverts when flicking through magazines or driving past billboards.

Respondents are given less than a second to view an ad and see if they can correctly recognise what is being advertised, Prompt managing director Lindiwe Matlali told Research.

Those ads that identify themselves effectively are rated as ‘Suns’, while those whose message are not conveyed accurately are ‘Black Holes’. Ads falling somewhere in between are rated as ‘Moons’.

Prompt uses eye-tracking technology in the tests to help researchers see what the respondent saw, said Matlali.

The University of Maryland’s professor Michel Wedel – who sits on the firm’s advisory board – and professor Rik Pieters from Tilburg University in the Netherlands developed the system.