Dear {{ first_name | reader }},

As a regular reader of my Wag The Dog newsletter, you know the crisis playbook you've used for years is breaking apart. Over the next five weeks, I'll show you what's replacing it.

AI-generated deepfakes can wreck your reputation before you know you're under attack. Your audiences have scattered across dozens of platforms, each with their own rules. New regulations make crisis response a legal requirement, with personal liability for executives.

These changes are happening now, and they demand new approaches. Each article in the series will give you real data and practical strategies you can use immediately.

The organisations that rebuild their crisis capabilities today will own the trust advantage tomorrow.

Enjoy strategic trends number 1 of the series of 5.

Keep safe, Philippe

This is the first in a five-part strategy insights series for crisis communication leaders navigating the next decade.

The phone rings at 3 AM. Your CEO's face is plastered across social media in a deepfake video announcing a product recall that never happened. By the time your team assembles on Zoom, the synthetic story has already triggered algorithmic trading that wiped $200 million off your market cap.

This isn't science fiction. It's Tuesday. 😏

Crisis communication has fundamentally changed. We're not managing discrete events anymore; we're navigating perpetual information warfare. The threats never sleep. The velocity is algorithmic. Your reputation can be destroyed before you even know you're under attack.

My reading, research and analysis across regulatory changes, technological disruptions, and market dynamics reveals five imperatives that will define crisis leadership through 2030:

The Zero-Truth Environment: AI-generated disinformation and deepfakes have killed the "truth production cycle". Your crisis isn't the event anymore. It's the synthetic media that hits before your first official statement.

Platform Balkanisation: The "general public" is dead. Your stakeholders live in fragmented digital ecosystems: TikTok, Discord servers, and niche forums. Each has its own language, culture, and trusted voices.

The Regulatory Gauntlet: New mandates from the SEC, EU NIS2, and DORA have transformed crisis communication from a PR function into a fiduciary duty. With personal liability for directors.

ESG as Crisis Vector: The gap between what you say and what you do has become a weapon. Activists and short-sellers use it to trigger immediate value destruction.

The Human-Machine Response Gap: AI-powered crisis intelligence operates at machine speed. Human approval processes? Still trapped in pre-digital hierarchies. It's a fatal bottleneck.

Today, we examine the first imperative: surviving the industrialisation of deception.

Remember when organisations had time to gather facts before responding? That luxury just died.

In early 2024, a finance employee at engineering firm Arup joined what appeared to be a routine video conference. The CFO was there. Other executives too. Every face was a deepfake. The employee transferred $25 million.¹

The numbers are stark. Deepfake fraud attempts exploded 3,000% in 2023.² Anyone can create these now. 95% of deepfake videos use free software like DeepFaceLab.Voice cloning apps need just three seconds of audio for an 85% match.³

Each deepfake fraud incident costs businesses nearly $500,000 on average. Since 2019, total losses have hit almost $900 million. The first quarter of 2025 alone saw over $200 million disappear.⁴

But the real threat isn't financial fraud. It's epistemic collapse.

MIT research shows false news spreads 70% faster than truth on social media.⁵ The biggest lies reach 100,000 people. Truth barely makes it to 1,000.

Human brains weren't designed for this challenge. We spot fake images correctly only 62% of the time. High-quality deepfake videos? We're down to 24.5% accuracy. A McAfee survey found 70% of people can't distinguish real voices from clones.⁶

Corporate preparedness is worse. Four out of five companies have zero protocols for deepfake attacks.⁷ More than half admit their employees lack training. A quarter of business leaders barely understand the technology.

The old crisis response: gather facts, craft message, legal review, respond, assumes time. Hours, maybe days. In the Zero-Truth Environment, you have minutes.

In 2013, the Associated Press Twitter hack falsely reported White House explosions. The S&P 500 lost $136 billion within minutes.⁸

That was just text. Today's deepfake videos carry exponentially more persuasive power. Anyone with a laptop can create them.

You can't fight industrial-scale deception with handcrafted responses. You need to industrialise authenticity itself. Stop debunking lies after they spread. Start establishing truth before you need it.

The Authenticity Vault:

A secure repository of time-stamped, cryptographically signed video statements from key executives. Not marketing materials but forensically sound evidence of reality. Generic crisis scenarios recorded before any specific incident occurs. "We're aware of an incident and investigating fully." Ready for immediate deployment.

Blockchain Notarisation:

Every vault asset gets blockchain-notarised. Creates an unalterable public record with timestamps. Provides definitive proof your content existed at a specific time—often before anyone could create a deepfake response to an event.

Real-Time Detection Systems:

Enterprise subscriptions to platforms like Reality Defender or Sensity AI. They monitor the web continuously, alerting teams when someone uses your executives' likenesses or company branding maliciously.

Decentralised Identity Verification:

Official spokespeople receive cryptographically secure digital certificates. They attach these to statements, allowing stakeholders to verify authenticity independently.

This approach flips the crisis dynamic. Instead of defensive "Is this real?" messaging, you project authoritative "Here's verifiable truth."

The Italian news agency ANSA demonstrates this power. They partnered with EY to blockchain-verify every story.

When fake websites later spread disinformation using ANSA's brand, readers could instantly confirm the lies didn't originate from ANSA.⁹ The blockchain verification protected both credibility and market position.

Two paths lie ahead. Build proactive resilience now and own credibility in an age of synthetic media. Or wait for traditional crisis management approaches to fail when the stakes matter most.

The organisations that architect authenticity systems today will command trust tomorrow. Those waiting for the next crisis committee meeting may find the algorithmic mob has already written their story.

Next week in Part 2: Platform Balkanisation. Why your press release falls on deaf ears and how audience fragmentation demands entirely new communication strategies.

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PS: I hope you've enjoyed this newsletter! Creating it each weekend is a labour of love that I provide for free. If you've found my writing valuable, the best way to support it is by sharing it with others. Thank you for reading!

_{Parts of this newsletter were created using AI technology to draft content. In addition, all AI-generated images include a caption stating, 'This image was created using AI'. These changes were made in line with the transparency requirements of the EU AI law for AI-generated content. Some links in this newsletter may be affiliate links, meaning I earn a small commission if you click and make a purchase; however, I only promote tools and services that I have tested, use myself, or am convinced will make a positive difference.}