Nissan is also embracing the spirit of the holidays and spreading cheer throughout the GTA, with its “Best Part of Your Day” brand platform.

The effort, developed with TBWAToronto, has street teams behind the wheels of Nissan Cubes, handing out free coffee, helping to find parking spaces and providing an umbrella escort. 

“Just talking to people through a passive medium isn’t sufficient anymore,” says Jeff Parent, VP sales and marketing at Nissan. “We want to socialize more and merchandize less.” 

Parent hopes people will be motivated to share their experiences on social networks like the brand’s recently launched online community, Bestpartofyourday.ca, which offers a bumper sticker maker, a “road trip randomizer” that provides driving directions to a mysterious location, “tiny test drives” of Nissan brands and YouTube videos of the kind acts.