The Student's Paradox

I just stumbled upon the three new channels Mini is featuring on Pandora: Snow, Asphalt, and Dirt Road. Really fun to listen to. And as one of my friends pointed out, "It's the little things that make up a brand."

Here's the problem: As much as I love this idea, if I saw it in a student book, my reaction would be a resounding "Eh." Not because it's not brilliant. It is. But if I experienced it as an idea in a student book, and not as an actual, working piece of communication, it would have been entirely forgettable.

It's not really fair, I know.

If your student book had an entire campaign about how Pandora is now integrated into each Mini, and a really good print or web campaign were the focal point, and these Pandora channels were more of a sidebar, that would be great. (In fact, that's pretty much what Mini, and I'm guessing their agency Butler, Shine, Stern + Partners did.)

But it needs to be pointed out again and again that peppering your student portfolio with single digital ideas like this isn't going to make your book stand out. In fact, they will probably take your book down a notch.