The Emotimeter, developed with online qual agency nQual, invites respondents to use a range of graphical devices to demonstrate the level of emotion they feel towards an advertising campaign, before taking them into an online focus group to discuss it further.

Users are first presented with an ECG-style graphic to adjust their ‘heartbeat’ to demonstrate their feelings, by either making it quicker or slower, which Spring said is a key indicator of how effective an ad campaign will be.

Respondents are then asked to define their emotional response by choosing from a range of emoticons, including angry, happy and bored, and then selecting a different-sized emoticon to display how intense those feelings were.

Rational or left-brain reactions are then elicited by asking users why they felt the way they did. Respondents are asked an open-ended question about the advert they have just seen, and the best answers are put through to an online focus group to discuss in greater detail.

Adverts will then be given a score to indicate how many people are likely to create buzz about the ad and discuss it with friends and family.

Steve Phillips, Spring’s founder, said: “Research has a vital role to play in assessing creative executions but by asking consumers to put emotions into words, you run right-brain thinking through a left-brain filter, creating an over-rationalisation of a gut feeling. Emotimeter is designed to give agencies intuitive insight into the magic of their work.”