A tchotsky - also sometimes called a feelie or a widget, I’m not making this up, honest - is a promotional object that can be sent out with a marketing mailing. I’ve been acting as a UK mail monitor for my client Untangle, and their latest direct mail campaign has included some really cool tchotskyage. My favourite is the Little Green Man:

The deal with a tchotsky is that it’s cool and fun - and, therefore, the kind of thing that’s likely to hang around on a prospect’s desk a long time after the paper components of a DM package have been passed on, lost or thrown out. The tchotsky sits there, with your logo on it, constantly reminding the prospect of your company’s existence.

A good tchotsky shouldn’t have a practical function as its main purpose - branded tea and coffee mugs are fine, for example, but tchotskies they ain’t, because they’re too mundane and useful. The defining feature should be coolness or cuteness. Or, as in the case of the LGM, both.

Untangle’s Little Green Man doesn’t live on my desk because he tells me the time, but because he has personality. Choose a good tchotsky and you can buy permanent advertising space that stays right in front of your customers’ eyes, every working day - for pennies.