How Deepfake Apps Are an Emerging AI Risk for Marketers?

Businesses spent billions over the last decade to establish their brand identity, but deepfakes created by using different deepfake apps destroy it in minutes. These artificial intelligence-based tools can alter faces, voices, and facial expressions so convincingly that even trained and traditional software cannot identify the falsehood.

A 2024 World Economic Forum report states that synthetic media events have increased more than 900% since  2019, and deepfake videos now account for a significant percentage of online disinformation. 

The risk is no longer mere political misinfo or celebrity gossip; it’s a corporate crisis. From spoofed CEO statements that crash stock prices to stimulated video reviews that dislodge consumer trust, deepfakes are redefining brand risk. For brands that play in today’s quickly changing digital economy, the use of effective deepfake detection is no longer optional, but it is necessary for brand survival.

Why Should Marketers Be Aware of Deepfake Apps?

Deepfake apps use cutting-edge AI, especially generative adversarial networks (GANs), to create pixel-perfect face impersonation. These apps can be employed for ostensibly innocuous entertainment, but the same technology can power mass fraud, phishing attacks, identity theft, and brand impersonation. The simplicity and low price translate to even the most nefarious actors no longer requiring a Hollywood budget in order to produce persuasive imitations. This level of deception has placed each and every brand on the hook, ranging from multinational corporations to small businesses.

How Deepfake Applications Are Harming Influencers

Although celebrities, models, and influencers frequently earn millions of dollars for business endorsement. A single edited video mistakenly links them to goods or ideas they have never endorsed. In addition to misleading customers, this harms the influencer’s and the brand’s hard-won reputation.

• Deceptive product reviews, created through deepfake apps, are being more and more used to trick shoppers or discredit rivals. For example, A well-known influencer, Molly-Mae Hague, recently shared a deepfake TikTok video that used her appearance to market a perfume she never recommended.
• Empowering Media Monitoring Strategy with Deepfake Detection: Brands already use media monitoring technologies to measure unfavourable press and online sentiment.

However, deepfakes are a new and more deceptive type of negative media that standard techniques frequently fail to detect. To protect their reputation, brands must now implement deepfake detection systems that can detect and stop disinformation campaigns before they become viral.

The Repercussions of Deepfake Apps on Brands Over Time

The issue is that once deepfake app material gets out, it is extremely difficult to trace or hold the original creators. As a result, brands often deal with long-term reputational damage, resulting in lost revenues, partnerships, and customer loyalty.

When deepfake apps-generated content gets out, retracting or fixing it seldom gains the same level of visibility. What’s left? A reputational wound that bleeds into revenue, partnerships, and customer loyalty.

How Business Trust is Destroyed By Deepfake Media

Trust is the new money of contemporary business relationships, and deepfakes go straight for it. 

• In B2B Relationships, a fake video of a CEO releasing erroneous news can initiate partner pullouts, shareholder frenzy, or regulatory probes.
•  In B2C Economies, deepfakes as brand representatives or consumer reviewers can fool thousands into purchasing or boycotting goods.
• Corporate Espionage: The Europol 2023 Internet Organised Crime Threat Assessment cautions that deepfakes are increasingly employed in business espionage to deceive employees, investors, and the public.

Lost trust is pricey to regain: expensive PR efforts, lawsuits, and years of work, while competitors meanwhile capitalize on the reputational gap.

Which Industries Are Most Susceptible to Danger?

Although all  industries are exposed to some extent, deepfake threats are the most heavily impacted in some sectors:

• Banking and Finance: Deepfake apps help to create CEO videos that could be used to rig stocks or approve fake transactions.
• Healthcare: fake doctor recommendations or fake research releases can spread disinformation and harm patients.
• Retail and E-commerce: Fake product reviews or phishing ads made using apps harm customer confidence.
• Media and Entertainment: Spoof celebrity interviews or teasers damage reputation and alliances.
• Public Sector and politics: deepfake app-generated endorsements can drag brands into political controversies. 

Strategies for Brand Protection Against Deepfake Apps

Deepfake apps directly jeopardize brand credibility, making proactive defence crucial. The following strategies help businesses in safeguarding their reputation, authenticity, and customer trust.

Double down on brand authenticity:

Fortify your branded channels. Employ authentic accounts, watermarks, and digital signatures on every branded video and campaign to enable customers to distinguish genuine content from app-faked fake.

Train your Marketing and PR Teams: 

Your marketing teams must learn to recognize app-faked fakes, lip-sync errors, off-key voices, and blurred images. Early detection enables brands to push back against disinformation earlier.

Monitor Social media for App-generated Content:

Utilize AI-driven Deepfake detection tools to identify deepfake videos or mentions connected to your brand. Preemptive monitoring allows you to react before a false piece goes viral. 

Maintain a Crisis Response Plan: 

A false ad or video can go viral in a matter of hours. A pre-defined PR crisis playbook with press release, legal steps, and forensic evidence assists in limiting reputational damage.

Protect Influencer Partnerships Against Fakes:

As influencers are a top target for deepfake apps, make sure contracts have digital rights protection. Work with partners who engage through authenticated means and authentication processes.

Push for Deepfake App legislation:

Brands can push for more stringent policies mandating labeling of AI content, app store regulation, and watermarking. By working in close collaboration with regulators, they can also push for relevant legislation that addresses deepfake misuse. A more secure and reliable digital marketing environment can be created through such industry-wide cooperation.

How Facia’s Deepfake Detection Protects a Brand’s Reputation?

• Deepfake apps are not only a cybersecurity issue. They are a brand reputation and business trust disaster. In today’s fast-paced digital world, one fake that convinces can negate years of branding in hours. For marketers, the threat is that fake endorsements, executive impersonations, and viral misinformation can erase years of building brand equity in a few hours. 
• But brands do not have to sit and wait for the next deepfake scandal. With Facia’s state-of-the-art biometric security and deepfake detection technology, companies can stay ahead of the game. Powered by industry-leading performance on the DFDC datasets, Facia’s solutions offer unmatched accuracy in spotting manipulated content.
• It’s AI-powered content verification technologies that examine video and image data to find irregularities that are not obvious to the naked eye. Facia helps businesses to safeguard not just their executives but also their customers, campaign integrity, and digital assets by blending in seamlessly with corporate security and marketing procedures. It guarantees that your brand stays real, reliable, and secure.