The south-east London firm, which installed Direct Smile's image tailoring software in July "has spent the last few months making sure that it works," said SR chairman John Burbidge. "We've made an investment in the region of 400,000 on Direct Smile and training for it."

He said that Direct Smile, which can tailor images to an individual with their own message, would help to forge stronger partnerships with creative agencies and clients. Agencies will be able to use Direct Smile to create DM campaigns and SR will then produce the material on its HP Indigo 3050.

"It makes us more of a partner and we've never been in that situation before," said SR senior account director Brett Smith. "Direct Smile will help clients and agencies to get into a more emotional way of marketing."

Burbidge added that SR would be installing its second HP Indigo 3050 press in January.

Story by Philip Chadwick