Schwag.
The word is as cool as it sounds, and it's getting hotter by the minute. (Anything on Technorati's Top Ten Searches is something to pay attention to.) And, while it's a funny word, it's much easier to say than tchotchke (a Yiddish word meaning "trinket".)
Here's the gig: Have a snappy designer help you design a cool tee-shirt and (hold on to your expense account) give it away to people. Free.
Why would anyone in their right mind want to do this? Uber-cool schwag website ValleySchwag explains it like this:
Look around. Web companies are the rock bands of our age, with schwag to match. Only it costs you $25 to get a t-shirt at a concert. So put the Belle and Sebastian t-shirt back in the drawer, and pull on your Odeo limited edition tweety bird. (Photo by Kris Krug)
An obvious choice is to give schwag to your employees. Put big boxes of snarky/cool tee-shirts in your breakrooms and let people take as many of them as they want. The sassier your design, the more likely people will give it to friends and, after a few weeks, it will start showing up in the movie line around town.
The Takeaway:
Here's the hint: If you're trying to hire, say, programmers. Put a deftly nerdy joke on the shirt. If you're trying to hire accountants, but something on there the dullest CFO out there would smirk at--momentarilly, of course.
The point? Use people to broadcast a message about your company that speaks to--not everyone--but a very specific group of people--the one's you're trying to hire.
This creates goodwill. Goodwill creates interest. Interest creates applicants. Applicants create hires. Get the picture?
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