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Busy consumers today know how to kick back and relax—at beachside hotels, ski resorts, heck, even a trip to the hair salon can be a refreshing hiatus from their hectic lifestyles. For smart brands these pleasurable pauses are an opportunity to join in the fun and connect with consumers while they are open to conversation—and receptive to a steaming cup of fresh-brewed coffee, a hair treatment or a chance to try out a new camera. And if they can generate some online buzz about it, so much the better.

To encourage test drives and drive foot traffic into its dealerships, from March 16 to 23 Chrysler is executing the Premiere Event, an integrated campaign that offers consumers $25 gift cards and a chance to win a 2011 vehicle. Almost 2,000 of the group’s dealers, representing 86 percent of the Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge and Ram dealership roster, are taking part.

To educate consumers about its video game offerings, Walmart.com is bringing its online world to life via the Walmart GameCenter Mobile Bus Tour, a program that will be hitting festivals, trade shows, concerts, sporting events and colleges through December. The tour travels in a 48-foot truck that unfolds into a gaming center with 16 Xbox 360 stations and two Kinect stations. Consumers can get their hands on a wide selection of games including pre-released titles.

Lifeway Foods on March 11 launched The Lifeway 25th Anniversary tour, a national sampling program to promote the immune-building and digestive properties of its line of Kefir products. Kefir is a creamy, milk-based smoothie-like beverage that is packed with probiotics that foster digestive health.

The 11-week tour kicked off at the Natural Products Expo West in Anaheim and will travel to 10 cities before wrapping in New York City when Lifeway ceo Julie Smolyansky will ring the closing bell at NASDAQ in mid-May.

To promote its new portable hydraSense ToGo nasal saline inhaler, Merck is activating sampling teams on the streets of Montreal and Toronto from now through March 18. In each city, a team of three brand ambassadors deploys from a branded Ford Transit van in high-traffic areas to hand out samples of the new easy-to-carry individual doses, mini packs of tissues and hot chocolate to warm chilly consumers. In addition, the brand is handing out up to $5.50 in coupons, good toward any hydraSense product.