Category: Deal Toys

If you’re not in the financial industry, there’s a good chance you’ve never even heard of custom deal toys. And you’re even less likely to have heard of the other, less captivating term they commonly go by: “financial tombstones“.

But even if you are in finance, perhaps even a new investment banker charged with ordering them for the first time, you may still be wondering what exactly deal toys are for.

After all, they don’t seem to “do” much. (Very few deal toys are functional. You might occasionally see one that doubles as a pen stand or desk caddy, but those are increasingly rare.)

So it might be hard to see custom deal toys as anything other than some insignificant financial industry quirk: weird, self-indulgent, and maybe just plain silly.

If they don’t do anything, what—and who— exactly are they for?

And if they do serve a purpose, is it just for investment bankers? And even if you are an investment banker, and are already familiar with them, you may still be baffled. Why would anyone possibly ask you to disrupt your already hectic work schedule, just to devote time and energy to something that seems so…frivolous?

Deal Toys Do Have a Purpose (and More Than One)

Deal toys, those commemoratives usually made of crystal or Lucite that celebrate successfully completed financial transactions, actually have several recipients and serve several purposes.

Internal Recognition

One rationale for deal toys is purely internal: they serve as employee recognition awards for those involved in a completed deal.

But unlike the kind of traditional, off-the-shelf employee recognition awards you might be familiar with, deal toys tend to have additional meaning for bankers (and other recipients). This added cachet is due to the fact that deal toys usually have custom designs, which in some way play off or evoke something specific to the deal itself, such as the company logo, the industry involved, or the type of deal. (These highly customized, creative touches also tend to make deal toys such effective conversation pieces when put on display).

In his book chronicling the experiences of several first-year investment bankers, Young Money, Kevin Roose gives some sense of the impact of what some disparage as “deal trinkets”. He describes the nightly routine of one of the young bankers, chronically sleep-deprived and bleary-eyed with pitch books and other “deliverables”. “He kept his deal toys lined up on the desk in his bedroom”, Roose writes, “and he liked looking at them before bed”.

Even many senior bankers still find that same sort of satisfaction in deal toys. They represent—and recognize—the considerable amount of time, effort, and expertise that typically go into a completed deal.

Personal and Group Branding

A second rationale for deal toys involves promotion and branding. They showcase experience, expertise,  and ultimately, success. The particular brand being promoted can be that of an entire firm or group (through, for instance, a display of deal toys in a conference or reception area).

But when displayed in an individual’s office or workspace, they speak more to a personal brand and provide what amounts to a visual resume of transactions and achievements.

Importantly, that visual resume tends to travel with bankers as they move from firm to firm; and just as significant, these custom deal toys are on display for a number of distinct and influential groups: colleagues, clients, and potential clients.

Client Retention and Marketing

This is by far the most important reason for deal toys, and explains how, and why, they’ve managed to survive over the course of 50+ years—despite a litany of financial disruptions, downturns, and even crises.

The most important recipient of deal toys is external; it’s the client of the bank or financial institution.

Whether they successfully guided a company through an IPO, raised needed capital through a debt issue, or facilitated a strategic acquisition, banks (like many other businesses) have sought ways not only to celebrate the occasion but also solidify their relationship with their client.

Decades ago, banks started to recognize that traditional, high-end “client appreciation gifts” had their limitations. Expensive pens, for instance, undoubtedly have both function and cachet, but they also have an uncanny knack for getting lost or disappearing.

High-end clocks, another obvious gift with high perceived value, posed different problems. Not all cultures prized clocks as gifts, and beyond that, just how many ornate desk clocks does an individual need, or for that matter, have the space for?

The Most Crucial Deal Toy Recipients: Clients

By contrast, investment banks found that deal toys were something that clients tended to hold on to.

Why?

One reason was their distinctive designs, which, again, had special meaning and resonance for those involved in the transaction. Having a design specific to a deal, and all the many challenges and shared experiences that went into bringing that deal to fruition is what gives custom deal toys so much perceived value and cachet for participants.

(At The Corporate Presence, we’re regularly provided evidence of that perceived value. We routinely receive requests, from both bankers and their clients, to replace lost or broken deal toys that were originally given years and sometimes even decades ago).

And because deal toys are valued in this way, they also tend to be displayed prominently. As banks soon appreciated—and long before the term “top-of-mind marketing” became so well-worn—that this also meant that their names and logos remained prominently displayed to their clients. That kind of silent advertising and promotion can be invaluable, especially if you’re trying to lay for the groundwork for future business with that client.

The gallery above demonstrates the visual appeal—translating into enduring marketing value—of an array of custom deal toy designs.

But are Custom Deal Toys Still Relevant—and Worth it?

But all this really speaks to the traditional rationale for deal toys, and there would seem to be a number of recent trends actively working against that rationale. Remote and hybrid work arrangements and cost-cutting, for instance, come immediately to mind.

Why would deal toys survive these realities?

The fact is that many recent trends have only underscored the value of deal toys. Yes, investment banks and financial institutions, like most organizations, have become increasingly cost-conscious. Deal toys have shed many of the flamboyant and extravagant flourishes they had in the 80’s and 90’s.

On the other hand, the impact of new workplace arrangements, especially in the form of fewer in-person interactions with colleagues and clients, has been profound. If anything, it has also tended to heighten the need to recognize employee contributions and forge deeper bonds with clients.

Again, if anything, deal toys have proliferated. Though they may not be ordering “deal toys” by name, a growing number of clients outside the financial sector are ordering similarly customized commemoratives to celebrate not only transactions but other organizational achievements and milestones.

What to Know Before Requesting a Custom Deal Toy Design

Before diving into the world of custom deal toys, there are a few key things you’ll want to keep in mind to ensure a smooth—and genuinely creative—process.

Be Clear About Your Objectives
Start by defining exactly what you’re commemorating. Are you marking the close of a complex transaction, celebrating a key partnership, or spotlighting an internal achievement? Clarifying the “why” will help your design team create something with personal significance—not just another desk ornament.

Expect a Collaborative Process
Unlike the assembly-line Lucite of yesteryear, today’s deal toys are highly tailored. Reputable designers thrive on bringing your specific story—and brand—to life. Be prepared to share details about your deal, company personality, and any design elements you want incorporated. The more context you provide, the more meaningful your end result.

Know the Timeline
Custom work takes time. From initial concept to final delivery, you’ll want to plan ahead—usually four to eight weeks is standard, but rush arrangements can sometimes be made.

Budget Appropriately
Costs can vary widely depending on materials, complexity, and quantity. Be up front about your budget at the outset so your design team can suggest options that maximize impact without sticker shock.

With these points in mind, you’re far more likely to end up with a memorable piece that’s worthy of both your achievement—and that coveted spot on a client’s desk.

Do You Need a Custom Deal Toy?

You may be considering a deal toy for an actual transaction.

But you might also want a “deal toy” to  recognize a strategic partnership or joint venture, legal advisory work in a favorable judicial decision, or regulatory approval of a new drug.

Despite their often playful design and character, and the seemingly dismissive “toy” tag, they do serve an important purpose—and not just for bankers. Get the creative process started. Reach out today.

David Parry is the Director of Digital Strategy for The Corporate Presence, and for Prestige Custom Awards, a designer and provider of custom corporate awards ranging from creative employee and client recognition pieces to the N.F.L. Commissioner’s Awards, and ESPN’s ESPY awards.

Yes, lawyers do, in fact, get deal toys. That’s been the case since the practice of giving out deal toys first took root among investment bankers and dealmakers back in the 1970’s.

But that’s probably not the most relevant or illuminating question here.

The far more interesting questions might be how, and more importantly, why attorneys and law firms end up with those deal toys.

Lawyers do receive deal toys, but increasingly they’re also ordering those deal toys directly themselves—for both clients and internal recipients. Why? For the same reasons investment bankers traditionally have. To commemorate successes and solidify client relationships, whether those successes take the form of legal advisory work in a transaction, or a favorable judgment or verdict.

This change gets to the very heart of why a custom like giving deal tombstones–one that might at first seem so frivolous and self-indulgent–actually has a sound business rationale.

And why it has endured for so long.

Attorneys and Deal Toys

Lawyers and deal toys go back many years. But for the most part, law firms historically weren’t the ones ordering them (and at The Corporate Presence, we have a 40-year history in the deal toy industry to draw on here).

Most often, lawyers on a transaction found themselves on the distribution list when an investment bank placed a deal toy order for that transaction. In some instances, the investment bank paid for the pieces and eventually sent them to attorneys (and sometimes accountants as well).

But more often, attorneys weren’t even on the initial distribution round. They had to contact the deal toy company themselves and make a separate, add-on order for the same deal toy.

Whatever the billing arrangement was with the investment bank, the point is that, for the most part, attorneys were rarely in on the deal toy ordering process at the outset.

That’s increasingly changed in recent years.

More law firms are now ordering deal toys to commemorate their own advisory role in a deal.

But Why Would Lawyers Order Their Own Deal Toys?

If an attorney could simply piggyback off the deal toy orders of investment banks, and buy their own deal toys, why would they bother to place separate orders for their own?

The answer’s simple: deal toys serve a couple of functions.

Among law firms, deal toys had traditionally served just one of those functions. Whether they appear together in a reception area, conference room, or an individual attorney’s office, they provided a visual resume of the deals in which the firm or attorney had participated.

The impact of this kind of display on a prospective client (or hire) can be powerful, something that investment banks have known for many years.

But that’s still only one of the crucial benefits of deal toys, something that, again, investment banks have appreciated for decades.

The other purpose of deal toys, and arguably the more important one, involves marketing. That’s discussed below.

The Lesson Law Firms Learned from Investment Bankers

For many years, as mentioned above, it was unusual for lawyers and law firms to order deal toys directly. They tended instead to request additional pieces from an order already handled and placed by an investment bank.

But attorneys have also increasingly come to appreciate the other, more subtle role of deal toys—namely providing desktop advertising for their advisory services.

Investment banks have long recognized that, because of their customization and cachet, deal toys tend not only to be kept by clients but also kept in a highly visible and prominent place.

That means that a deal toy can serve as a constant visual reminder to clients of the expert work done on their behalf by your bank, law firm, accounting firm, etc. That constant reminder, in turn, increases the likelihood that when that client again needs the services of an investment bank, law firm, accounting firm, that they reach out again to your firm.

Their effectiveness as a marketing technique has been the very reason deal toys have survived so long. (And this was the case despite endless predictions and pronouncements that they were “dead”.)

Lawyers have increasingly recognized the value of deal toys in fulfilling this same marketing function.

Lawyers Discover Non-Deal Uses for “Deal Toys”

Though we continue to receive a steadily growing number of inquiries from law firms, most of these “deal toy” requests have nothing to do with deals.

We regularly hear the word “deal toys” in inquiries from law firms, but many times the event being commemorated is not a successful transaction but a successful judgment or verdict.  These pieces, again, are for internal distribution at the law firm, but primarily they’re intended as commemoratives for their clients.

A great example is the design below.

But there are any number of reasons law firms can (and regularly do) contact us for these kinds of non-deal “deal toys”. They include:

• Successful Judgment/Verdict Commemoratives:  (As noted above)
• Litigation Team Recognition Pieces: (Often including photos of team members)
• Third-Party Recognition: (Such as pieces commemorating the firm’s selection in a National Law Journal “Hot” list)
• Press Coverage: (Usually in the form of a commemorative incorporating articles on a high-profile judgment or verdict).
• Bankruptcy Reorganizations
• Successful Patent or Trademark Filings

Providing Firms with “Deal Toys” and Non-“Deal Toys”

If you’re looking to commemorate any significant event or achievement on behalf of your firm, The Corporate Presence provides you with a wealth of design and production expertise and experience. Reach out to us and get the creative process started.

David Parry is the Director of Digital Strategy for The Corporate Presence, and for Prestige Custom Awards, a designer and provider of custom corporate awards ranging from creative employee and client recognition pieces to the N.F.L. Commissioner’s Awards, and ESPN’s ESPY awards.

You probably don’t spend a lot of time monitoring trends in deal toy design, specifically classic deal toy shapes. Certainly, no one’s suggesting that you should be. You’re much more likely to be attuned to even subtle changes in the world of fashion, or to the announced design tweaks to the latest iteration of your smartphone or watch.

But if you’re as focused on deal toys as we are, and you have been for over 40 years, you tend to notice designs that fall in and out of favor.

Some of these deal toy shapes seem to have been relegated to yesteryear. It’s not likely you’ve seen too many examples recently of such once-popular designs as the “faceted cube”, the “pup tent”, or the “lying wedge”. And you probably won’t see many of those shapes in the future.

The seven variations in common, classic deal toy shapes that we’ve highlighted below aren’t in danger of disappearing anytime soon. But you still might want to keep them in mind as variations offering an extra element of cachet—even to otherwise relatively conventional deal toy designs.

The Flat-Back Curve Deal Toy Design

The flat-back curve is a pretty simple variation of a rectangle design. But the scooped-out front still manages to give it a distinctive, and eye-catching touch.

Flat-back curves tend to work especially well when there is a dominant visual element. An example is the Swedish flag in the deal toy design above.

The Lying Cylinder

The product at the heart of the transaction above is a heat exchanger. It’s effectively showcased here with the use of 3D laser etching, a process that’s specific to crystal.

Beyond the 3D etch effect, what really makes this design so effective is the chosen shape. A lying cylinder design is a great way to display a central element like this with a horizontal orientation.

The “Skinny Trap” Deal Toy Shape

The mere mention of the word “trapezoid” can launch some of us into a traumatic, eye-twitching flashback to high-school geometry classes, and long-forgotten formulas for area and circumference.

As much as you assumed in high school you’d never encounter the shape in adult life, you may want to give some thought to a thin trapezoid—or, as it’s often called, a “skinny trap”.

The skinny trap is another example of a design variation that plays off a more conventional shape. That said, it’s one that can give a little more prominence to a simple rectangle design.  It can also bring additional focus to the featured visual element, in this case photos from the property portfolio that the transaction involved.

The “Open Book” Design

The two-panel or “open book” design is pretty self-explanatory. You often see it used along pretty literal lines, in a deal toy design commemorating a deal in the media, publishing or education space.

But the open book shape can work well in any design in which two visual elements are meant to receive equal emphasis and weight. The piece shown above is not strictly a deal toy. It’s a design ordered by a law firm commemorating a successful patent infringement action. Appearing alongside the details of the litigation—and receiving equal prominence—are photos of the attorneys who contributed to the victory.

Slant-Top Oval Design

The piece shown above is also not a deal toy. However, it is relevant when considering classic deal toy shapes. It commemorates the opening night of the long-running Broadway musical “Hadestown”.

But we’ve included the piece here because it’s such a great example of the virtues of the slant-top oval design. The slanted top gives the piece an extra design element, and frequently this is a spot where, for instance, a logo can be printed or laser-etched.

The other, somewhat less obvious advantage of the slant is a practical one.

The additional space maximizes the design elements and information clearly visible from the front. The words “Opening Night”—along with the date—could conceivably have been placed on the back, or even etched at the bottom of the piece. But placing them on the slant, though, gives them significantly more visibility and prominence.

Slant-top Cylinder Shapes

The slant-top oval design has two virtues that tend  to set it apart from other deal toys and awards you might have on display. Its compact desgin makes it shorter than most other desgins. Also, the angled face can the text, image, or logo more prominent.

The gallery above showcases a variety of slant-top designs in both crystal and Lucite.

Curve Designs

Curves offer another way of enlivening a simple rectangle design. The degree of curvature can be more extreme. But it can also be relatively subtle, as in this Lucite piece above.

“Standard” Deal Toy Shapes Don’t Have to Be Boring

At The Corporate Presence, we’ve been designing deal toys for over four decades. We pride ourselves on offering clients a full range of design possibilities, from highly customized and complex, to more conventional and understated.

Hopefully this post has shown you that even relatively conventional shapes and designs don’t have to be boring or commonplace. Whatever your preference, you can rely on us to provide you with some truly memorable deal toy design options. Reach out to us today.

David Parry is the Director of Digital Strategy for The Corporate Presence, and for Prestige Custom Awards, a designer and provider of custom corporate awards ranging from creative employee and client recognition pieces to the N.F.L. Commissioner’s Awards, and ESPN’s ESPY awards.der