The challenge
Another bottle of wine wasn't going to move the needle.
Ono International wanted a gift for their top 200 partners that wasn't another bottle of wine, another tin of cookies, or another generic curated gift box. The brief was simple and ruthless: something memorable, story-driven, and difficult to imitate.
It also needed to land in time for end-of-quarter. We had six weeks from kick-off to delivery, including custom tooling.
The concept
Turn the company's origin story into a desk object.
We commissioned a fully custom, LEGO-compatible minifigure based on the company's founding-story characters — printed parts, custom torso, custom head, a tiny golden briefcase as the accessory. Every figure shipped in a museum-grade display box with a foiled card telling the story in three short paragraphs.
The object earned a place on a partner's desk. The story made sure they remembered who it came from.
The outcome
Five renewals cited the gift, unprompted.
Photos of the figure circulated across LinkedIn for weeks. The Ono team heard about it from partners who hadn't replied to an email in months. Five enterprise renewals during the following quarter cited the gift, unprompted, as a reason for staying.
Ono has commissioned the second wave for early 2026 — a different character, same hand-numbered run.
