2025 Gold Utilities and Telecommunications
12 Dec 2025
Agency: VCCP and Girl&Bear
Client: Virgin Media O2
Entry Name: Daisy vs Scammers
Executive Summary
O2 transformed traditional marketing approaches to fraud protection and tackled scamming head-on. This is a story about a scam-baiting AI granny named Daisy, built to hold scammers on the line and waste their time.
Strategy
Core insight was rooted in three simple truths: scamming triggers the most visceral of human reactions. Whether successful or attempted, scammers can leave us feeling scared, silly and violated.
There has been a huge amount of behind-the-scenes work on fraud prevention at O2. But despite investing heavily in sophisticated scam-fighting initiatives the brand was seen as part of the problem.
The rest of the telco category’s fraud prevention campaigns focus on top tips, with the onus placed on customers avoiding getting scammed. O2 wanted to show that it was fighting back. Rather than trying to stop scammers, how could the brand waste their time?
Creativity
Meet Daisy: a 78-year-old granny who loves to chat. She tells rambling anecdotes about her grandchildren, forgets her bank details and happily shares her favourite recipes. But Daisy isn’t real. She’'s a sophisticated AI - DAIsy - built from multiple generative AI models that define how she looks, sounds and behaves.
Daisy needed to feel utterly human - authentic, sympathetic, and vulnerable - the kind of target scammers dream of. To achieve this, the brand turned to June, a real grandmother, recording her stories, cadence and quirks. These were used to train Daisy, making her rambling voice notes indistinguishable from a real elderly woman.
Daisy was given special powers. Working with renowned scam-baiter Jim Browning, she was trained on anonymised scam calls, allowing her to respond instinctively to every fraudulent pitch - from hacked bank accounts to fake HMRC debts. She wasted scammers’ time while the team generated content from her calls. Then an online film of Daisy in action, supported by Love Island’s Amy Hart - herself a scam victim - brought her to the world.
Results
Daisy gave O2 a cultural edge through relevance, creativity and purpose. The campaign generated more than 2,000 pieces of global media coverage, with TV features in nine international markets and 2 billion+ earned impressions.
Unprompted campaign recall peaked at 17%: O2’s highest in 2024, still holding at 12%+ a month later. £20,000 paid media spend achieved a total AVE of £36m, a 1,800x return on investment. Satisfaction with the brand efforts to tackle fraud increased by 42%.
Contributors
Broadcast Revolution
The Team
Jonathan Parker, Chief Creative Officer, VCCP – Chris Birch, Chief Creative Officer, VCCP – David Masterman, Executive Creative Director, VCCP – Ben Hopkins, Creative Director, VCCP – Morten Legarth, Creative Director, VCCP – James Lucking-Pham, Senior Creative, VCCP – Filipe Birck, Senior Creative, VCCP – Peter Gasston, Innovation Lead, VCCP – Michael Sugden, CEO, VCCP – Michael Lee, CSO, VCCP – Alex Dalman, Managing Partner and Head of Faith, VCCP – Jonathan Andrews, Senior Account Director, VCCP – Helena Chaplin, Business Director, VCCP – Jamie Glazer, Senior Account Manager, VCCP – Samuel Olabode, Account Coordinator, VCCP – Ismahane Ileye, Influencer Marketing Manager, VCCP – Lotte Jones, Planning Director, VCCP – Liberty Covill, Junior Planner, VCCP – Phil Beaman, Technical Director, Bernadette – Gabriele Lanzafame, Prompt & Diffusion Model Engineer, Bernadette – Ravi Patel, Project Director, Bernadette – Kerry Howell, Managing Partner, Bernadette – Mike Beckman, Senior Interactive Developer, Bernadette – Matt Carter, Director, Bernadette – Pip Seymour-Judd, Integrated Creative Producer, Girl&Bear – Charlotte Borrell, Executive Producer, Girl&Bear – Richard Guy, Producer, Girl&Bear – Hannah Chitty, Producer, Girl&Bear – Felix Borer, Production Assistant, Girl&Bear – Finlay Macaulay, Post Producer, Girl&Bear – Sarah Hemsley, Senior Post Producer, Girl&Bear – Tom James, Editor, Girl&Bear – David Fayinka, Editor, Girl&Bear – Emily Vizard, Audio Operator, Girl&Bear – James Perry, Artlab Manager, Girl&Bear – Yasmine Moridi, Resource Manager, Girl&Bear – Tom Loach, Design Director, Girl&Bear – Matt Montgomery-Taylor, Senior Designer, Girl&Bear – Leila Amin, Senior Designer, Girl&Bear