Daisy vs Scammers (case study)

With 7 in 10 Brits targeted by scammers, O2 sought a bold new way to protect its customers. The brand decided to fight back by targeting what fraudsters value most: their time. Rather than rely solely on education or warnings, O2 embraced a creative solution that weaponised humour, technology and empathy. The result was Daisy, an AI-powered granny designed to keep scammers on the line for as long as possible, wasting their time so they couldn’t prey on real people.

Daisy wasn’t just a chatbot—she was a fully developed character. An elderly woman with a penchant for knitting, long-winded anecdotes, and her beloved cat Fluffy, Daisy was trained on real scammer call data and voiced using custom speech synthesis. Her personality was inspired by a VCCP team member’s own grandmother, making her conversations eerily authentic. She would talk about her garden, misplace her glasses mid-call, or break into song—all tactics designed to frustrate and stall the scammers. Some calls lasted more than 40 minutes, with scammers stuck in a loop of polite patience and growing confusion.

To ensure scammers would actually call her, Daisy’s phone number was seeded into dubious online forms and scammy lead databases, allowing her to receive real incoming scam calls in real time. She was trained with the help of legendary scam-baiter Jim Browning, whose years of experience with scammer behaviour informed her responses and kept them believable. The campaign team also tapped into advanced AI tools—language models, voice cloning, and real-time audio synthesis—to make Daisy feel alive. Every interaction was recorded, and the funniest and most outrageous calls were turned into short films and social content.

One of the hero films featured Daisy keeping a scammer on the line by trying to read out her nonexistent “National Cat Insurance Number.” Another saw her lose her place in a story about Fluffy’s arthritis while the scammer sighed audibly on the other end. Daisy quickly became a viral hit, with audiences praising the campaign’s creativity and cleverness. Her clips generated widespread laughter, but also serious conversation about fraud prevention and the importance of awareness.

O2 amplified Daisy’s reach by partnering with former Love Island contestant Amy Hart, who shared her own experience of nearly falling for a scam. Her candid perspective brought the campaign into Gen Z territory and helped drive credibility with a younger audience. All of this was achieved with just £20,000 in paid media, as the campaign organically exploded across the press and social platforms.

The results were staggering: over 2,000 PR articles, 1.7 billion earned media impressions, and £36 million in AVE. Customer perception of O2’s anti-fraud efforts soared, with satisfaction jumping 10 percentage points. Reports of scam messages via O2’s 7726 reporting service increased significantly, showing real behavioural change. By using creativity and tech in service of the public good, Daisy transformed O2’s reputation from telco to protector—and gave scammers a taste of their own medicine.