Virgin Media O2 | Daisy vs Scammers | 2025
A 78-year-old AI grandma keeps scammers on the phone forever / Virgin Media O2 "Daisy vs Scammers"
Meet Daisy, a 78-year-old AI grandma built for one job only: keeping scammers on the line as long as possible. She loves knitting, talking about her cat, and never, ever hanging up.
The problem
In the UK, 7 out of 10 people are targeted by scams, and O2 was the telecom provider scammers impersonated most. Since scammers attack from abroad using disposable phones in organized operations, telecom companies can't actually catch them. So O2 decided to go after their time instead, since for scammers, time is money.
The insight
Research found that 71% of people want to get revenge on scammers, but 53% don't do anything because they don't want to waste their own time. So why not have someone else do the time-wasting for them? An AI can talk around the clock without ever complaining. Matching the profile of the elderly people most often targeted, they created Daisy, a chatty grandma with an endless cat story.
The idea
Daisy's phone number was seeded into sketchy online forms so it would end up on scammers' call lists. When the calls came in, she'd keep talking: trying to read out her cat's insurance number and losing her place, going on and on about her cat's arthritis, always sounding like she's about to give up personal information, but never quite doing it. Some calls lasted more than 40 minutes. The campaign featured Amy Hart, a public figure who had actually been scammed out of £5,000.
What happened
The media spend was just £20,000. It generated over 1,800 press mentions, 1.7 billion impressions, and £36 million in estimated ad value. Satisfaction with O2's scam protection rose from 24% to 34%, far outpacing competitors' 3-point gains. Daisy went on to handle over 1,000 scam calls.
Afterthought
At a time when most AI stories are about AI taking people's jobs away, a story about AI taking scammers' time away feels like something worth cheering for. The moment I heard a recording of a scammer shouting "It's been an hour already!", I laughed, and honestly, it felt great. Somewhere out there, Daisy is probably still on the phone, refusing to hang up.
Awards
- Cannes Lions Grand Prix 2025
Featured in
- Fictional People Started WorkingFive people who don't exist — and reality answered back anyway.
