When McLarty Automotive Group came to us, the brief was simple: build something for the clients and partners who move the needle, not a form email at year end. It had to look like it came from a dealership group that pays attention to detail, because that reputation is on the line every time someone opens a box with their name on it.
We built a matte-black gift set, cased in a magnetic presentation box with McLarty’s logo foil-stamped on the lid — the kind of finish that photographs well on day one and still feels right a year later.
The McLarty mark, foil-stamped into the lid.
What’s inside
Insulated travel tumbler
Matte black, marked with the McLarty logo — the piece most likely to end up on a desk every single day.
Hardcover notebook
Debossed cover, ruled pages, sized for a meeting rather than a bag.
Metal pen
Weighted and branded — the kind recipients pocket instead of leaving on the table.
Cardholder
Slim enough for a jacket pocket, branded where it gets noticed rather than shouted.
Valet tray
A small catch-all for keys and a phone — the detail that makes a set feel considered rather than assembled.
The full set, cased and ready to hand over.
First look: the reveal we designed the box around.
The result
The sets went out to McLarty’s top clients and referral partners ahead of a relationship-building push, and the reaction was immediate. Recipients photographed the box before they’d even opened it, which is, on some level, the whole point of a foil logo. Sales conversations that had gone quiet picked back up on the strength of a thank-you note, and several recipients brought the set up unprompted in follow-up meetings — not something that tends to happen with a branded pen.
More importantly for McLarty, the set did the quiet work corporate gifting is supposed to do: it gave the sales team a reason to reach back out, gave clients a reason to remember who sent it, and put the brand on desks it doesn’t usually reach. In the weeks after the campaign, McLarty’s team reported warmer conversations with the partners who received it and a noticeable uptick in referral interest — the kind of return that’s hard to reduce to one number but easy to feel on a follow-up call.
Detail sells the whole set, right down to the pen.
Built the way we build everything
Nothing in the McLarty set is generic. Every piece was chosen, branded and cased in-house, the same way we’ve built corporate gifts since 1996 — because a gift with a logo on it is a promise about the company that sent it, and it only works if the promise holds up in someone’s hand.
If your top clients and partners deserve better than a branded pen, let’s talk about what we’d build for them.