10 to 1 News

10to1PR Wins Two National Awards including “PR Agency of the Year” and “Most AI Ready Agency”

by Erica

10to1PR Wins Two National Awards including “PR Agency of the Year” and “Most AI Ready Agency”

Scottsdale-based 10 to 1 Public Relations (10to1PR), a public relations firm offering strategic communications services that are targeted, compelling, and achieve clients’ goals, earned two 2024 national industry awards from the Bulldog PR Awards. The two awards include a Gold Award for the Most AI Ready Agency and a Bronze Award for the Midsize PR Agency of the Year category. Bulldog PR Awards is the only public relations awards program judged exclusively by journalists to celebrate the best and brightest in the industry.

The AI award was given based on 10to1PR being at the forefront of Deepfake Crisis Management and spreading awareness about digital deception and the threat of AI-generated deepfakes to businesses across all industries. The company offers a free digital deception guide on the 10to1PR website and provides business owners with strategies to protect their company from AI threats and inform those who do not have access to PR or reputation management resources.

“AI can be a useful tool to assist companies everywhere, but in the wrong hands, AI can be just as harmful to businesses as it is helpful,” said Josh Weiss, President and Founder of 10 to 1 Public Relations. “We’re grateful to be recognized for our efforts to help companies prepare for and protect themselves from Deepfakes, and for the Bulldog PR Awards to once again name us Midsized PR Agency of the Year.”

In the last few years, 10to1PR has been named PR Agency of the Year in several international, national, and local competitions, and has earned dozens of awards in various categories celebrating the work of this talented team on behalf of its clients. Earlier this year, Newsweek named 10to1PR to its list of America’s Best PR Firms in five categories. 

The Bulldog PR Awards is connected to Bulldog Reporter which has been providing news, best practices, and insights to PR and communications professionals since 1980. Filled with insights on topics critical to PR pros and communicators, including media relations, crisis communications, influencer marketing, and more, the Bulldog Reporter email newsletter offers compelling and relevant articles, plus timely updates about journalist moves and agency news.

10 to 1 Blog

How to prepare employees for a deepfake attack

by Erica

How to prepare employees for a deepfake attack

As technology advances AI has brought forth new challenges for businesses. Most recently the threat of deepfake attacks, AI-generated photos, images or audio files has increased, causing business leaders and employees to raise concerns about how to mitigate risk, protect themselves, and guard their businesses.

Below are three steps business leaders can take to prepare employees for a deepfake attack. 

Be Transparent

Before a crisis happens, business leaders must prepare employees for potential risks. If a crisis hits, employees are most often the first ones who have to communicate with angry or scared customers– calming their fears and resolving their problems. Be transparent with your employees and let them know potential risks or threats that a deepfake attacker might take advantage of before it happens. 

Examples of deepfake attacks can include the inappropriate use of AI-generated images or the spread of a fictional video on social media. A deepfake attack on a construction company can look very different than one on a dentist’s office. Employees are a company’s front line of defense. It’s crucial to be transparent, clear and upfront about company practices and threats.

Create Steps for Workers to Follow

Most companies already have a crisis playbook to guide them through incidents. If your company does not have a protocol in place for employees to follow in case a crisis hits, start building one immediately. When preparing for deepfake attacks, protocol should include educating employees on how to identify a potential deepfake. In addition, employees should know what to do if they suspect a piece of media is fake. Make the step-by-step guide short and easy to follow. If a crisis hits this protocol will help employees navigate the first 24 hours of a crisis until upper management can step in to provide more direction. 

Schedule Trainings

Before a crisis company leaders should hold group meetings with employees to get everyone on board with key messaging and proper crisis protocol.  Incorporate crisis messaging into monthly talks and urge company leaders to visit with employees to ensure understanding. Work with your company’s IT team to educate employees on how to identify if the media is a deepfake or not, similar to how companies conduct training on how to identify phishing emails or other scams. 

Other Strategies

Other strategies for preparing employees for deepfake crises include preparing a crisis playbook and preserving media connections. Take action now and safeguard your business against deepfakes. Take a look at our free guide on how to prepare for a deepfake crisis. 

10 to 1 Blog

Stop the Spread: Monitoring for Misinformation Will Save Your Business

by Erica

Stop the Spread: Monitoring for Misinformation Will Save Your Business

Monitoring the internet for news mentions, customer reviews, and social media posts is a crucial part of maintaining a business’s reputation. 

Businesses need to stay aware of what is being spread on the internet to mitigate risk, maintain trust and credibility, and support customer relations. Recognizing the spread of misinformation is key to building a strong defense against digital deception. It’s important to react to misinformation quickly and efficiently as misinformation can cause major business repercussions such as loss of customers and long-term reputation damage. 

With the rise of digital deception, it is more important than ever for businesses to preserve their image to retain and gain customers. Reputation management through monitoring for misinformation safeguards trust and credibility for companies and is a key component of long-term success. 

One strategy businesses can use to mitigate the risk of misinformation is to create an online space where customers can find and connect with your brand, such as websites or social channels or a website. If customers know the key messaging and tone of a brand they are less likely to confuse it with misinformation. In addition to creating an online space where customers can recognize a brand, maintaining that space is also crucial. Businesses should prioritize monitoring for misinformation while creating reliable messaging and sustaining engagement with customers.

Other strategies for maintaining reputation include preparing a crisis playbook and preserving media connections. Take action now and safeguard your business against deepfakes. Take a look at our free guide on how to prepare for a deepfake crisis. 

4 Ways to Preserve Your Business’s Image in the Age of Digital Deception

by Erica

4 Ways to Preserve Your Business’s Image in the Age of Digital Deception

Digital deception is increasing and with today’s evolving digital landscape, leaders may be worried about maintaining their business’s image. It’s harder than ever for businesses to create trust and build relationships with customers, but with a little effort you can share your story the way it was meant to be told. 

Here are four ways to preserve your business’s image in the age of digital deception. 

1. Consistent Messaging 

Messaging is how customers will recognize your company’s brand. If messaging is inconsistent, your target audience could become confused, ultimately leading to a decrease in customer traffic and a loss of trustworthiness. Make sure that messaging is consistent across all channels of communication, internally and externally, to ensure that customers can find your company, recognize your brand, and trust your products or services. In addition, it’s important to remember that consistent messaging should align with your brand’s mission, values, and key principles. 

2. Crisis Management Planning

Creating a crisis playbook is a crucial part of preparing your business for unforeseen crises. Incidents such as data breaches, natural disasters, the spread of damaging viral videos and more can have a lasting impact on a company’s reputation. Having a well-planned crisis management plan in the form of a crisis playbook will allow you and your employees to respond to crises in a timely manner, reducing reputational damage and keeping customer and employee trust. 

3. Media Relations

Building relationships with media such as reporters and editors will help ensure that your brand’s story is being told accurately. Making an effort to build a relationship with local or industry media will allow your company to be part of the media narrative that impacts the industry, local community, and more. 

4. Monitoring Online Reputation 

Monitoring the internet for news mentions, customer reviews, and social media posts is an important part of maintaining your business’s reputation. Creating an online space where customers can find and connect with your brand such as websites or social channels is a key aspect of creating a brand. Maintaining that space is crucial for sustaining engagement with customers and reliable messaging. 

With the rise of misinformation and digital deception, it is more important than ever for businesses to preserve their image. Building a strong defense against digital deception includes preparing a crisis playbook, monitoring online presence, sharing consistent messaging, and preserving media connections. Reputation management safeguards trust and credibility for companies and is a key component of long-term success. 

10 to 1 Blog

These Types of Deepfakes Can Affect Your Business

by Erica

These Types of Deepfakes Can Affect Your Business

With the advancement of AI technology, businesses are seeing the emergence of new challenges and threats. A threat that has risen to the top of business leaders’ list of concerns is the threat of deepfakes. Deepfakes include the manipulation of videos, audio clips, photos, and other content for the purpose of misleading an audience or manipulating others into believing fake content is real. 

The spread of misleading content can significantly damage a brand’s reputation and trust, causing a major loss of business. If you’re a business leader, you should be on the lookout for the following types of deepfakes and how they can affect your business.

Deepfakes and Financial Fraud

Financial fraud can be attempted through someone using a deepfake to appear as a trustworthy representative within an office. An example of financial deepfake fraud could be a voicemail left on an employee’s phone that sounds like their CEO or HR representative asking the employee to email over banking information for payroll reasons. However, in reality, the voice message is a deepfake, it’s an AI-generated message created to mimic a trustworthy person. This type of fraud is dangerous because an employee who has a lot on their plate or who is unaware of the threat of deepfakes might not think twice about confirming whether the request is legitimate.

Deepfakes and Impersonation 

Impersonation is one of the most common types of deepfake fraud. Using AI tools, almost anyone can impersonate someone as long as they have access to photos, video, or voice recordings of them. Examples include the creation of an Instagram account mimicking the CEO of the company. The account may post photos of the CEO committing inappropriate actions, sharing extreme beliefs, or voicing unpopular opinions for the purpose of ruining the reputation of the CEO, brand or company. Impersonation is very dangerous for a business and can result in detrimental business loss and reputational damage, even if caught quickly.

Deepfake Impacts By Association 

Sometimes, damage to a business’s reputation won’t be the main goal of a deepfake. However, many businesses in today’s world of viral videos and internet controversy will receive backlash through association. For example, an AI-generated video of a celebrity behaving inappropriately at a public event wearing a hat with the logo of a business could appear funny to viewers at first, but when spread can cause major repercussions. As viewers dive deeper into the video they can acknowledge the celebrity’s hat and the business it represents. This is just one simple example of how a business can be pulled into a crisis, incidents where businesses deal with repercussions because of association happen all the time and leaders need to be ready. 

Deepfakes and News 

Deepfake fraud in the form of a news story can spread far fast. It is arguably one of the hardest crises for businesses to stop once started. For many reasons, creators of this type of fraud spread illegitimate content appearing in the form of news articles or updates. Deepfakes like this can be dangerous as news outlets will sometimes pick up stories others have published, resulting in false information being shared. For example, an AI-generated video of an employee protesting in an extreme way is shared online and then shared via social media. Social media users may not realize the content is a deepfake and continue sharing. The video was fake from the start and users may eventually realize that, but now it is too late.

Ways to Combat Deepfake Fraud

Businesses need to be prepared for the threat of deepfakes and deepfake fraud. Some ways businesses can prepare for this challenge is by making sure employees are aware of the threat of deepfakes and are educated on how to tell if a piece of content might be deepfake fraud. In addition, businesses can increase digital security, keep media identification tools on hand, and create internal business strategies on what to do if a threat ever happens.

At 10 to 1 PR, we have secured agreements with highly reputable deepfake detection software companies capable of conducting immediate reviews of content in addition to creatine strategies and crisis playbooks for businesses to help prepare for the threat of deepfakes. We also have connections to AI Deepfake industry experts willing to provide their personal insights to the media and the public, exposing the deception.

Take action now and safeguard your business against deepfakes. Take a look at our free guide for how to prepare for a deepfake crisis.