I interviewed a recent college grad last week, who is about to finish her first job in the communication field (a contract position): managing employee communication for a manufacturing plant.

One of her tasks is to write, design and distribute a print newsletter for employees in the plant. (She relies on print since most of her audience doesn’t have access to email.) Distribution is straightforward: she places the newsletter in bins and hopes employees will pick up a copy as they pass. Seems fairly straightforward, doesn’t it?

Here’s the interesting part: Within a few day of dropping an issue, she counts the newsletters remaining in the bins. Data!

After a few rounds of dropping and counting, she had an aha moment: when she included features about employees who work in the plant, there were fewer newsletters left in the bins.

Guess what her strategy is now? She focuses on employees. Smart, smart, smart.