The Derbyshire-based carton board packaging printer launched its new service at Packaging Innovations at the NEC in Birmingham last week, a fortnight after agreeing a deal with Nth Degree.

Jacky Sidebottom-Every, sales director at Glossop Cartons, said: "Nth Degree had been following us on Twitter and the partnership came out of that - they could see Glossop was a forward-thinking company, very keen to try something new, so they came in to show me what they can do and we decided that we'd come to an arrangement and offer it together.

"Augmented Reality is one of those things that some people will look at and absolutely see a use for with their brand and some people it just doesn't move. I can see a number of opportunities, whether it's more in-depth instructions like a how-to video, or for promoting a specific product in more detail."

She added: "Augmented Reality has come of age, and we're delighted to be among the first to bring it to the packaging industry. The possibilities are endless, and I'm confident that our customers will reap the rewards of engaging and interacting with their customers in a way they've never been able to before."

Under the terms of the agreement, Glossop Cartons will continue to do the printing and retain overall management of the client relationship, but Nth Degree will work with the client on the AR portion of the campaign.

This ranges from the creation and embedding of the AR trigger (either a QR code or a trigger image) in the client's existing artwork for use with a free mobile app (Onvert), to a full bespoke white label service, covering everything from idea and content creation through to delivery via a custom-branded app.

Ian Prosser, sales director of Nth Degree Imaging, said: "Packaging Innovations was a very successful show for us and for Glossop Cartons and there's a whole host of opportunities that have come out of that."

Nth Degree is the sole UK distributor for Onvert, which is developed by Bedforshire-based Harmony Internet.