Milka sent 200K chocolate bars to the wrong homes – on purpose
Sometimes the best PR move is to allow your target audience to do the speaking for you.
When global brands try to root themselves in local culture, it can be tempting to make a quick splash through major ad buys or flashy marketing and promotions.
Those efforts can work, but they’re often quick fixes. Building real, long-term hometown credibility, especially in a market where trust belongs to a deeply entrenched local favorite, requires a more personal approach.
“People trust recommendations from the neighbor next door far more than an ad on TV,” said Sylwia Nędziak, marketing manager–chocolate for Mondelēz International.
That was the challenge facing the Chicago-based company faced in Poland, where its brand Milka held about 26% of the chocolate market but trailed a beloved national competitor with a 170-year head start. So, teamed with Ogilvy Poland to create “Let’s Neighbor Up!” – a campaign that sent parcels containing Milka candy bars to the wrong addresses across Poland’s seven largest cities.
They wanted something beyond a standard media campaign to build hometown credibility with a personal, community-driven approach.
Each courier delivery was left on a doorstep but addressed to a neighboring apartment. Inside, recipients found two “Neighborly” chocolate bars – one to keep, one to share – plus a letter encouraging them to meet their neighbor.
“We intentionally left this package with your neighbors, hoping they would pass it on to you,” the letter read. “This is so you can finally get to know each other better and neighbor up.”
Instead of pushing product, Milka took a universal annoyance – receiving someone else’s package – and flipped it into a feel-good moment, giving neighbors a reason to connect.
“This (campaign) allowed us to express our positioning and tenderness,” Nędziak said, “but in a very authentic, locally rooted way.”
An intentionally forced ‘error’
Intentionally mis-sending hundreds of chocolate bars with no fallback plan was a gamble.
“Imagine an agency proposing to send 100,000 parcels to the wrong addresses,” Nędziak said with a laugh, admitting there were fears at first.
“We didn’t have a backup plan. We weren’t even prepared for what if something popped up,” she said. “We just believed it was a great idea and were going to run it.”
The team had to prepare meticulously. Every address was manually verified. Legal teams ensured only physical addresses, not names, appeared on labels.
The campaign targeted newly built apartment complexes finished in the past two years, where neighbors were less likely to know each other. Milka focused on small, intentional touchpoints. Rather than leaving them at every door, the team placed parcels on only a handful of floors in selected buildings to generate curiosity and conversation among residents.
“We wanted meaningful moments that could spark broader social reconnection,” said Maciej Twardowski, Ogilvy Poland’s chief creative officer.
A branded courier teams wearing Milka T-shirts handled drop-offs. PR team members captured photos and video.
Midway through delivery, a flood hit Wrocław, one of the campaign’s cities. The team adjusted on the fly.
“We decided to deliver to Wrocław first, hoping to add a little something nice for these people in such a difficult situation,” Twardowski said.
Keeping things organic
Each letter featured two hashtags inviting conversation.
“We were making a campaign about authenticity, so we kept an approach that felt genuine,” Twardowski said. Milka didn’t push the campaign on social.
“We typically focus on paid reach and organic word of mouth rather than forcing content through our channels,” Nędziak added.
The team watched social chatter, neighborhood groups online and organic media mentions – not just for reach but for tone and authenticity. Neighbors posted photos of Milka bars, shared letters on Instagram and tagged each other to say thank you or ask, “Did you get one too?”
Mentions totaled 23,347 likes, 1,061 shares and 172 comments in the first month. It had the greatest reach on TikTok, Facebook and LinkedIn.
Milka coined a new phrase – “zasąsiadujmy się” (“neighbor up”) – to track during the campaign. People searched that term 40,000 times within a week of the launch.
From buzz to storytelling
The media approach mirrored social media: slow, thoughtful and grounded in human connection.
The first formal wave of media engagement came in October, with Ogilvy and Milka releasing a video featuring real neighbors who connected through the campaign.
Shot documentary style, it captured what Twardowski called the “emotional aftermath” – people meeting and reflecting on how a misdelivered chocolate bar led to friendships.
“It needed to feel real,” he said of the video.
In November, the team followed with a cinema ad and wrap-up film compiling user reactions, social posts and news clips into a story about restoring neighborly bonds that outlets had largely picked up organically.
“We waited for people to feel something first, then we showed the rest of the story,” Nędziak said.
Impact beyond metrics
Milka’s KPI focus was building trust and understanding the campaign’s impact on shifting consumer behavior.
“We wanted to track the effect, both short-term and long-term,” said Nędziak.
Pre- and post-campaign surveys included statements like, “Milka helps build relationships with neighbors,” “Milka encourages positive relations” and “Milka sparks tenderness in society.”
Milka monitored metrics like brand equity, market share, search volume and social conversations.
The approach paid off; brand trust rose five points and market share climbed from 26.9% to 33.5%, according to Nielsen.
The campaign’s cultural resonance also drove product demand. Milka released a “Neighborly” edition bar, selling more than 5.5 million bars and reaching nearly one-third of Poland’s population.
“This is a marathon, not a sprint,” Nędziak said. “We need at least one more year to understand the impact on brand trust.”
Following the campaign’s success in Poland, Mondelez is exploring adapting similar concepts in 20 other European markets where urban disconnection is rising.
“We didn’t need to be at the center of the story,” Nędziak said. “The consumers – the neighbors – were the real protagonists.”
Casey Weldon is a reporter for PR Daily. Follow him on LinkedIn.
