We took the Milka “Dare to be Tender” idea and actually laid down the gauntlet to the Polish public, daring them to be tender in their daily lives.

We went to the people encouraging them to embrace each other and Milka.

The basic idea was to find “The Most Tender Town in Poland”, designed to engage every town and city, where people have a strong feeling of pride in their local community.

First we needed to build credibility of the activation within local authorities and media to involve them into promoting the campaign idea in their towns. We used PR tools such as: partnerships with opinion leading media and hundreds of tailored-made press releases to achieve extensive coverage on the towns websites and social media.

Then we launched a massive editorial campaign, designed and developed in cooperation with two media powerhouses.

We invited people to support their beloved towns by "virtual hug" on FB and dedicated website, where every individual could send a hug to family and friends, neighbours and colleagues, adding to their town’s overall “Hug Count”.

Then something unexpected happened. After hugging all of their virtual friends, people didn't want to stop and kept on hugging. This time in the real world. Towns gathered for giant group hugs in their main squares… and even around lakes.

We quickly dispatched Milka reporters all over the country to capture these acts of tenderness.

700 of Poland’s 900 towns and cities took part and over 7 million hugs were shared online.

It all started with a “Virtual Hug” – on Facebook and our dedicated website, every individual could send a hug to family and friends, neighbours and colleagues, adding to their town’s overall “Hug Count”.

To spark off the movement and to keep it fresh over the full 9 weeks, we launched a massive editorial campaign, designed and developed in cooperation with the largest national TV and Radio stations. Every weekend on breakfast TV and every day on Radio we aired reports of unprompted acts of tenderness in various towns and cities from around the country.

After all the results were counted, 3 towns went through to the Grand Final and were awarded with simultaneous events.

The title of “Most Tender Town in Poland” was decided by online voting and activities during the live televised events.

The winner was announced to a viewership of over 2,5 million people.

OVERALL CAMPAIGN

- 700 towns (out of 908 in Poland) engaged

- 7 000 000 hugs shared online

- 8,3 million page views (www.fioletowastrona.pl)

- 154 000 Google mentions about the campaign online

- 356 minutes of TV content produced by TV partner

- 760 publications appeared in official media (PR)

- 60 000 participants on the Milka live events

BRAND:

Activation recognition: 72%(92% of them knew it was sponsored by Milka)

Brand Image: +8pp (on avg)

Top of mind AA from 27% to 45% (+ 18 ppt)

Unaided Brand Awareness from 66% to 72% (+ 8 ppt)

Milka became the No. 1 chocolate tablet in Poland for the first time ever, increasing net revenue by 33% year over year.