South Africa, Nov. 12 -- Marketers argue endlessly about the cost of paid media: cost per thousand impressions, viewability, whether a two-second scroll past a video counts as being seen.

Fair questions.

But we rarely apply the same arithmetic to the objects our brands leave in people's hands. Do that, and the humble mug looks like one of the most efficient pieces of media a company owns.

I should declare an interest: I work in this industry, so test my sums rather than trust them.

The arithmetic of a useful object

Take a cautious illustration. Say a decent branded mug costs R80 delivered and its owner uses it once a working day for a single year, roughly 220 days.

That is 220 exposures for one person, before you count the colleague...