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Now, that’s thinking out of the box.

Nissan Canada staged the biggest giveaway in automotive history on a balmy evening in late June when it handed 50 of its brand-new boxy Cube cars (worth more than $850,000) to contest winners across Canada through presentations simulcast in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver.

Didn’t hear about the promotion?

No surprises there since Nissan – in partnership with Toronto agency Capital C Communications – avoided the usual mainstream quadrangle of TV, radio, print and billboard to trumpet their car launch.

Instead, the automaker and its agency embarked on in mid-March on its Hypercube social media marketing campaign, that the company says offers significant rewards "creativity in Canada."

"The creative class is what’s motivating everything these days," explains Jeff Parent, Nissan Canada’s vice-president of sales and marketing.

"If you want to get something started, they’re the ones who are talking to each other.

"They are the ones that other people coalesce around. Creative people make their art to infect others. For us, it was a natural fit."

With a recent Ipsos Reid poll estimating that 56 per cent of Canadians boast some sort of social networking profile, it’s no wonder that Nissan and the rest of the auto industry – including recent network campaigners Ford and Honda – are shifting some of their advertising dollars away from traditional avenues.

And they’re not the only industry following the trend.

Vacation vendor Sunquest Canada recently concluded its own series of online-driven contests to attract eyeballs to its MySpace, Facebook and Twitter sites.

Youth-driven products such as music, sneakers and snowboards have also been successfully marketed this way, advertising industry executives point out.

"This really portends the rise of the niches," notes Ben McConnell, co-author of the books Creating Customer Evangelists and Citizen Marketers.

"The niches are really where the big manufacturers especially have to focus their efforts now – that’s where the growth industries are. You exploit the niche and hope it turns into a bigger audience along the way."

McConnell says by targeting specific consumers via social networks, corporations can trigger powerful word-of-mouth buzz about their products.

"When you find those core early adopters, those people who love something that’s cool and new and are influential to a larger group outside themselves.

"That’s not only how word-of-mouth spreads.

"But it is how trends are formed as well," he says.

"Finding that core group of people is always the hardest part."

Once you find them, you have to involve them, notes Rob Young, vice-president of PHD Canada, a media and communications agency based in Toronto and Montreal.

"What you’re seeing is something called `activation,’ which has become popular in the last five years," Young explains.

"Giving away 50 Cubes is an example of social activation: This is where you try to take your brand down to the street level and force some sort of direct interaction between the customer and the brand same day cash advance."

There was interaction aplenty at the Cube contest. Five hundred finalists, including Juno Award-winning recording artist Greg Sczebel, were assigned a blank webpage on Nissan’s hypercube.ca website and invited to creatively "audition" for their chance to win a free vehicle.

"I was fascinated how people embraced this brand and did stuff so much more creative than we could have as an agency," said Capital C chief executive Tony Chapman, who estimates that five million potential consumers were "touched" by the three-month campaign.

"We had songwriters, dancers, poets and puppeteers – stuff that was so insanely brilliant, refreshing and original."

Sczebel wrote two songs, submitted a video for each, and – like all contestants – was allowed to rally votes from his online community.

"I really tapped into my fan and friend base on MySpace, Facebook and Twitter," says Sczebel, who leveraged free autographed copies of his pending October album Love And The Lack Thereof to attract supporters.

Sczebel ended up generating more than 4,000 votes and 21,000 profile views.

"That’s pretty good exposure," he admits.

"That wasn’t just my mom and my grandmother voting for me – that was a lot of people I didn’t ask to check it out."

PHD’s Rob Young says a successful social media campaign allocates advertising dollars efficiently.

"The thinking here is that you could spend $5 to reach 1,000 people in a TV commercial at a relatively low level of involvement, or spend $5 reaching 10 people at a high level of involvement. The high level of involvement – if you get the right consumers – is a better payback."

Unsuccessful campaigns can be catastrophic.

"It has to be done carefully and with the greatest sincerity," Young warns.

"If it’s done poorly, then the consumer could build up a pretty harsh sense of cynicism towards the brand, and things can backfire."

Good campaigns can also save money.

Although Parent wouldn’t divulge the cost of the multi-million-dollar campaign, he said Nissan Canada spent "a third of the amount of what I would normally spend on a car launch of this kind."

He says it’s important to open up a dialogue with the consumer.

"We think we control the brand, but with the Internet, social media and the way people talk today, we don’t anymore," says Parent.

"The brand is really what other people think and say about us.

"So, we’re going to ask this community, `what do you want to do next? This is your car, your brand.’ It will inform everything we do in traditional car launches for a long time."

Ben McConnell says social media marketing campaigns are the wave of the future.

"Programs like this will probably continue to grow for not only car manufacturers, but companies of all shapes and sizes," he says.

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Family finances have never been more important than in tumultuous 2009.

But the devil is in the details.

A solid family budget, a viable long-term financial plan and up-to-date legal documents can keep you on the right track. Making sure each spouse is informed of all financial arrangements is vital as well.

Most Americans realize that if you lack estate documents such as a will or living trust, it will be up to the state to determine who receives your assets.
However, if you don’t also pay attention to the designated beneficiaries listed on your investment accounts, or if you allow legal documentation to become outdated, you’ll increase the headaches for your heirs one day. Your plans may not be carried out in the manner you intended, either.

This is a good time to check whether the financial logic behind current wills and estate plans still holds up. The decline in personal portfolios and property so common these days can affect the relative proportions of your various assets.

"You can’t change your will every time the stock market fluctuates," said Rita Brown, a certified public accountant and AEP (accredited estate planner) with Jackson, Thornton & Co. in Montgomery, Ala. "But if you want to leave a certain amount of money to your children and your stock portfolio no longer allows for that, you may need to go back and make some changes."

Your will, as the legal document that gives instructions to be followed after your death, spells out the beneficiaries of your assets, any specific gifts, what should be done with remaining assets, a guardian for minor children and nomination of an executor. Self-help books or software are available for a basic will, though an attorney is necessary as your property and accounts become more complex. You must be confident that everything is exactly as you want it.

The value of your estate, which includes all of your assets, is the fair market value of your property after your debts have been deducted.

The estate value determines whether your estate is subject to estate taxes after your death and whether beneficiaries are subject to capital gains taxes. In 2009, the first $3.5 million of an estate, or $7 million for couples, is exempt from estate taxes. There is also a gift tax with a $1 million lifetime exemption.

"I have clients who, because of changes in the value of their portfolio or changes in family dynamics, will want to amend their existing estate plan," said Bernhard Aaen, a lawyer and AEP in San Bernardino, Calif. "Estate planning can typically cost $2,000 to $5,000, and it can be $1,000 to $2,000 to have plans amended (though fees vary)."

Failure to update beneficiary designations in documents such as individual retirement accounts, 401(k) plans, life insurance policies and annuities is a common mistake easy payday loans. Individuals fill out account beneficiary information on a company form when they begin a new job and forget to update it when family situations change because of events such as the birth of additional children or a divorce.

That may mean, for example, that the firstborn child inadvertently winds up receiving the entire account when the parent dies.

In addition, people often forget which of their accounts are jointly held. At death, money in a jointly held account goes directly to the survivor, no matter what the will may say.

"Sometimes you can have these lovely will or living trust documents that an attorney spent time on and that you’ve paid for," said Brown. "But then we find out that all of the person’s assets are jointly held with rights of survivorship."

A living trust, established while you’re alive, lets you control how your estate is distributed and helps your heirs avoid probate court and its fees. Though it makes the most sense for larger estates, because of the cost of setting it up, a living trust averts complications for your family.

You transfer ownership of your property and assets into the trust. You can serve as trustee or select a person or institution to serve as trustee. If you’re the trustee, you must name a successor trustee to distribute assets at your death. Terms of the living trust need not be made public. A living trust does not remove all need for a will, because generally you would still need a will to cover any assets not transferred to the trust.

"People frequently come to me and say their spouse had a trust and when that spouse died everything went very smoothly, which is what you want to hear," Aaen said. "They have the trust to be sure that everything goes smoothly for their kids when they die."

The Federal Trade Commission recommends that you seek advice of an estate planning attorney or financial adviser about your need for a living trust, noting that state law often requires that an attorney draft the actual trust. If transfers aren’t handled properly, the trust could be invalid.

In all family financial matters, be organized so you don’t leave a tangled mess of financial documents behind for heirs. Market panic has prompted many investors to stop funding their accounts altogether and put financial matters out of mind. That attitude can lead to negative repercussions for your retirement and for your heirs.

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A bank’s abrupt change of heart on a bond refinancing proposal is squeezing Kellwood Co., the Town and Country-based maker of Phat Farm, Sag Harbor and other clothing brands, a company executive said Friday.

Eric Hunter, Kellwood’s senior vice president of marketing, said Deutsche Bank had indicated it would agree to the refinancing plan until this week. He would not confirm a story in the Wall Street Journal, which reported Friday that an inability to reach agreement with Deutsche Bank could force Kellwood to seek Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

"We’re still looking at all the options," Hunter said.

Kellwood was a publicly traded company until February 2008, when it was purchased for $542 million by Sun Capital Partners and taken private. It employs about 2,000 people, including about 175 executives and other workers in St. Louis. Kellwood has about $500 million in total debt and $800 million in annual sales, the Journal said.

The company has a $140 million bond issue maturing Wednesday, the Journal reported. Hunter would not confirm the amount. Tight credit markets had prompted Kellwood to try to defer bond payment by exchanging the bonds for what the Journal said were ones maturing in 2014 with better terms.

Hunter said Kellwood believed all the bondholders had agreed to the plan until Deutsche Bank, the largest bondholder, announced "a complete 180-degree switch" this week.

"It’s frustrating and to a certain degree it (makes us) angry because they could have told us this six weeks ago," said Hunter, adding that the bank’s new position could be a negotiating tactic cheap business cards.

A Deutsche Bank spokesman was unavailable for comment. A Sun Capital spokesman declined to comment.

Talks to reach a deal by the midnight Wednesday deadline will continue, Hunter said. Months of declines in consumer spending and high debt are hurting nearly all retailers, he added. "We’re all living in the economic climate."

Once primarily known for Sag Harbor and other moderately priced labels, Kellwood has been restructuring to cut costs and build its higher-priced clothing business. Sun Capital said at the time of the acquisition that it aimed to strengthen Kellwood.

In November, Kellwood raised cash by selling its Gerber Childrenswear and Hanna Andersson businesses to an affiliate of Sun Capital for $179 million. Kellwood said it would use about $145 million from the sale to pay down debt.

Sun Capital is a private equity fund based in Boca Raton, Fla. Several of its approximately 85 portfolio companies have filed for bankruptcy since January 2008.

Most of the filings have been by retailers, including Lillian Vernon Corp., Sharper Image Corp., Mervyn’s LLC and Wickes Furniture Co. Lillian Vernon was liquidated and sold to rival catalog Current USA.

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New immigrants are an increasingly important driver of the housing industry, particularly in large cities such as Toronto, helping to steer the currently rocky market onto steadier ground, a study by Scotiabank says.

"As recent immigrants to Canada make the transition from renter to owner, they will increasingly drive housing demand," Adrienne Warren, Scotia Economics senior economist, said yesterday.

Scotiabank forecasts that Canada’s aging population and low fertility rates mean that a decade from now, 75 per cent of the country’s population growth will come from immigration. That compares with 60 to 65 per cent now.

The most recent census data from 2006 show that 72 per cent of immigrants lived in dwellings owned by household members, up from 68 per cent in 2001. The biggest increase was among those living in Canada for less than 10 years, suggesting that immigrants are buying homes more quickly than before.

Accountant Seela Gupta, 35, lived with an uncle for four years in Brampton before buying her first home last year.

"I think it’s important to have some roots, and property is important when you first arrive," Gupta said. "It is part of the dream."

Her semi-detached unit is home to a recently arrived cousin. But he, too, will likely buy a home in the not too distant future, she said.

Unlike earlier decades, when newer immigrants struggled to gain a foothold, more immigrants now are involved in high-growth industries such as engineering, construction and skilled trades, the Scotiabank report said. That may have helped the transition to home ownership. Also, "greater geographic mobility" to meet shifting regional labour needs may have been an asset.

While the new housing market has stalled since January due to the economic crunch, there have been signs of life lately, largely thanks to low interest rates.

The seasonally adjusted annual rate of housing starts rose 10 per cent in the Toronto area in June from May, to 24,000 units, according to data yesterday from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. Multi-unit development such as condominiums rose 15 per cent auto car loan.

"The June numbers provide evidence that residential construction activity is gradually improving," said Shaun Hildebrand, CMHC’s senior market analyst for the GTA. "Reduced supply in the resale market and increased incentives from developers will attract more buyers to the new home market."

Despite the positive uptick, starts are down by 44 per cent to date this year in unadjusted data for the Toronto area, so analysts are cautioning that starts will remain "below levels" reached in prior years, until job numbers improve significantly.

"A bottom may perhaps have been formed in the Canadian housing market as homebuyers take advantage of the lower mortgage rates and the various incentives," said TD Securities economics strategist Millan Mulraine.

"Even so, we expect residential building activity to remain fairly subdued for some time with a full-fledged recovery not likely until some time next year."

The Ontario Home Builders’ Association said the numbers showed the industry "on the road to recovery" after a tough winter. President Frank Giannone said, "We are now cautiously optimistic that the housing sector is starting to emerge from the downturn."

The association recently won a battle with the province over a proposed harmonized tax that could have added thousands to the cost of new homes over $400,000, starting next year. The tax was scaled back.

Nationally, starts were up 8 per cent to 140,700 units, driven largely by a rebound in Western Canada.

In contrast to Canadian housing markets, the U.S. development market is still extremely weak, despite unprecedented government attempts to buoy the market with financial incentives, including an $8,000 (U.S.) tax credit. Existing home sales rose just 6 per cent from the January low, as "construction remains deep in the tunnel," BMO Capital Markets noted yesterday.

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OMAHA, Neb. – A Canadian investment firm paid $1.68 million in last month's charity auction to win lunch with billionaire investor Warren Buffett.

The Glide Foundation, which receives all the auction proceeds, said Wednesday that Salida Capital, which is based in Toronto, won the auction.

Salida Capital CEO Courtenay Wolfe says the auction offered a unique opportunity to sit down with one of the world's greatest investors direct payday loans.

Buffett annually auctions off a lunch to benefit Glide, which provides social services to San Francisco's homeless and poor.

Buffett, who is Berkshire Hathaway's chairman and chief executive, is known for both his investing success and philanthropy. He plans to gradually give most of his $36 billion fortune to five foundations.

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Multiple offers. Frenzied buyers. Higher prices.

In the middle of a recession, Toronto real estate has gone from a buyer’s market to what looks like a seller’s market. But can it last?

Some analysts say the spring fling will be exactly that – a quick bump up in numbers with a much more sombre fall to come.

"You had pent-up demand from the winter where nobody bought anything, and then these really low interest rates that brought everyone back into the market," said Shaun Hildebrand, senior market analyst for Canada Housing and Mortgage Corp.

The Toronto Real Estate Board reported that 10,955 existing homes were sold in June – up 27 per cent from June of last year. The average home price was $403,972, up 2 per cent from 12 months earlier.

Analysts such as Hildebrand say the rebound appears remarkable, but don’t expect it to last. At least not until job numbers pick up substantially.

"I don’t think the housing market is on a solid enough footing to register the kind of growth we’ve been seeing going forward," said Hildebrand. While the market is much more resilient than many analysts previously thought, it still isn’t firing on all cylinders and won’t be for some time, he cautioned.

"Shifting mortgage rates and a great unfreezing of confidence have resulted in a very strong wave of home buying in the GTA," housing analyst Will Dunning said in a report. "But what really matters over longer periods is job creation, and the signals from the market are discouraging."

The jobless rate in Ontario is forecast to climb sharply to 9.3 per cent this year, according to the Royal Bank of Canada. Last year it was 6.5 per cent.

Much of the weakness in jobs growth is focused on the manufacturing sector, and Ontario is particularly vulnerable, Dunning said.

"I expect the short-term impacts of changing rates and postponed buying will soon pass and the GTA housing market will be weaker in the second half of the year," he said cash advance.

One reason for the uptick in real estate is that remedies to fight the recession, such as low interest rates, have helped turn around the market.

Another reason is that active listings are down by 30 per cent from last year, meaning there are fewer properties to choose from. That causes prices to rise.

"The main reason to list is so you can buy something else," Dunning said.

"Listings remain weak, which is another reason I think that this wave of buying won’t last much longer."

Nevertheless, real estate agents such as Royal LePage’s Helena O’Connor did not expect to see multiple offers – where competing buyers bid up the price of a home – in the middle of a recession.

"It was a little surprising," O’Connor said. "Buyers are really responding to the low mortgage rates."

Sutton Group realtor Alicia Pang, who quit a comfortable job in banking to become a full-time realtor last year, had some doubts about her career choice over the winter. But she is very busy now.

"I got my licence just when there was a slowdown, so my timing could have been better," Pang said. "But it worked out okay. I knew things would improve in the spring, but I never imagined the market would be this crazy."

Pang said about 80 per cent of her clients are first-time buyers driven by record-low mortgage rates.

A one-year closed mortgage can be had for as little as 2.75 per cent, while a five-year closed rate can be found at 4.39 per cent, according to website Canadamortage.com.

"Because the listings are down, it’s hard out there for buyers," Pang said.

"For choice properties, if you’re not out there on the first day, they’re gone."

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Loyalty program Groupe Aeroplan Inc. is continuing its aggressive international expansion while its former owner and key partner, Air Canada, is struggling to stay aloft amid the current economic downturn.

In a move that highlights the differing fortunes of the two businesses, Aeroplan said yesterday it is planning to spend about $24 million to launch a new coalition loyalty program in Italy next year.

Aeroplan said it has already signed up several retail partners for the program, which will be 75 per cent owned by Aeroplan and is to be modelled after the company’s Nectar program in Britain. Aeroplan purchased Nectar two years ago for $754 million.

"We have publicly stated that we intend to grow our core business offering and I am delighted that we are making good progress in executing this strategy in Italy," Rupert Duchesne, Aeroplan’s chief executive, said in a statement fast payday loan no faxing.

Originally conceived as an Air Canada frequent-flyer program, Aeroplan was spun off by airline parent ACE Aviation Holdings Inc. four years ago.

Details about Aeroplan’s expansion came just one day after the loyalty program revealed it would lend $100 million to Air Canada, which is struggling to avoid a liquidity crunch brought on by the weak economy and rising cash obligations. The loan is secured against the airline’s vacation division.

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It began 41 years ago when a meandering drive through then-rural south St. Louis County landed Orville Roy at the Chrysler assembly plant in Fenton.

Recently discharged from the Marine Corps, Roy decided to fill out an application. A job offer came two days later and, with it, a legacy was born.

Eventually, three of Orville Roy’s sons, a daughter-in-law and a grandson, Michael Roy Jr., would follow him through the Fenton plant gates.

"It’s been our living, our livelihood," said Michael Roy Sr., 48, Orville’s son.

No more.

On July 10, Michael Roy Jr. and 600 other Chrysler workers will punch their time cards and go down in history as the final shift at a location that has turned out the automaker’s products for a half-century.

"There’s no middle class anymore," said Michael Roy Sr., forced to retire from Chrysler in December due to medical problems. "The middle class is gone."

That may be an overstatement from a former worker angered and betrayed by what he sees as the failure of the United Auto Workers and Chrysler to protect local production jobs now outsourced to Mexico and Canada.

But it still rings true for families, like the Roys, who have come to view assembly line positions at Ford, General Motors and Chrysler as a birthright.

Multigeneration families employed by and loyal to a single car manufacturer have long been "part and parcel of the automobile business," said Michael Smith, director of the Walter Reuther Library at Wayne State University and an expert on the labor movement. "That’s why the auto crisis is so devastating."

Matthew Diemer, an assistant professor of counseling at Michigan State University, said it may be premature to declare the "death" of a tradition of children following parents and grandparents into blue-collar manufacturing jobs.

"But maybe," he allows, "what we’re seeing is the death knell."

COMPLICATED OPTIONS

The bell tolled for the Roy family on April 30, the day Chrysler announced it was laying off what remained of Fenton’s Dodge Ram pickup truck work force. (The company halted minivan production at the Fenton location last year.)

After work that afternoon, 24-year-old Michael Roy Jr. and his mother, Cheryl Roy, repaired to a local tavern to consider a series of complicated options.

In mid-May, Cheryl Roy, made her up her mind. An autoworker for 14 years, she rejected a possible transfer to a Chrysler facility in either Illinois or Michigan and took a company buyout.

Cheryl is collecting severance benefits, searching for a job and staying at the family home in Arnold to care for her husband, Michael Sr., who retired following diagnosis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis — Lou Gehrig’s disease.

Also looking for work, Michael Roy Jr. wonders what the future holds for a young man who aspired to retrace the footsteps of his grandfather and father.

"I’m good with my hands," he said. "And if you’re good with your hands, what can you do now?"

The official answer: Move from the production of goods and services dependent on nonrenewable resources to the production of environmentally sustainable commodities. Manufacturing the blades used in power-generating wind turbines is a commonly cited example.

State and national leaders across the nation, including Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon, contend that so-called "green jobs" represent the next wave of American manufacturing.

Michael Jr. knows that getting a foothold in the clean energy work force means going back to school. A few credits shy of an associate’s degree, he walked away from his education to accept an offer of a part-time Chrysler job that he saw as a stepping stone to full-time employment personal loans.

Strapped by declining income as he helps tend to his father, Michael cannot afford, in terms of either time or money, to return to his studies at Jefferson Community College.

Smith agrees that Michael’s best hope rests in furthering his education,

A former autoworker himself, Smith laments that the days when a union membership card served as a portal to a middle class lifestyle are slowly disappearing.

"The jobs that dad and grandpa had, that didn’t require anything more than a high school education, are no longer around," Smith said. "Even auto working is not just about putting on hubcaps anymore. It’s a lot more sophisticated."

ITS OWN REWARD

That was not the case when Orville Roy, now 80, began working his way through various administrative departments, including payroll, in 1968.

"In the old days, if you knew somebody and you wanted to get hired, all you had to do was ask for a recommendation," he said.

All the better if that acquaintance happened to be a blood relative.

Putting aside their disappointment that jobs once performed in Fenton are now held by workers in Canada and Mexico, Michael Sr. and Cheryl Roy acknowledge their family of six has done all right by the nation’s No. 3 domestic automaker.

"We have four kids that wanted to play sports and take dance classes and do all sorts of things," said Cheryl. "Somebody had to pay for it."

Until Cheryl went to work in the pickup plant in 1995, that somebody was her husband, who had started as a "floater" in the chassis department 11 years before.

"I worked on the line, and that was punishment," said Michael Sr.

"I’ve shoved in engines, I’ve thrown tires and I’ve thrown bumpers," said Michael Sr., lapsing into autoworker jargon to describe the tasks he performed at Fenton. The "punishment" of the line, though, had its own reward: By the time Michael Sr. retired late last year, he was earning $29.95 an hour, plus the heralded UAW benefit package.

There was also the intangible benefit, Michael Jr. noted, of spotting a Dodge Ram on the road and thinking, "I made that truck."

TUG OF TRADITION

Michael Jr. never matched his father’s salary.

Nor, because his tenure paralleled Chrysler’s shrinking market share, was Michael Jr. ever offered a full-time position at the plant.

Michael Jr. can lay claim, however, to a dubious distinction: He worked both the last day and night shift to produce a minivan at the South Plant and, later, was assigned to the last North Plant night shift to build a pickup.

Michael Jr. was circumspect last week as he reflected on the irony of a callback has placed him on a shift that will soon assemble the final Chrysler product ever built in Fenton.

"It’s frustrating," Michael Jr. said. "But (unlike his dad and grandfather) I haven’t put my whole life into it."

Resolved that the time has come for him to move forward, the son of Michael Roy Sr. and grandson of Orville Roy nonetheless feels the tug of the tradition that began on a long ago leisurely drive that wound up, improbably, at a car factory.

"I was kind of hoping," Michael Jr. said wistfully, "that my grandkids would work there."

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