Deepfakes: A New Frontier
In December 2020, the season finale of “The Mandalorian” stunned audiences with a surprise appearance by a young Luke Skywalker. Fans were elated, and a little unnerved. The version of Luke was not merely a recast actor or a digital stunt double, but a deepfake: a sophisticated melding of old footage, new performance, and artificial intelligence. All crafted to bring a younger Mark Hamill convincingly back to life.
Around the same time, face-swapping apps and novelty deepfakes were trending on TikTok, delighting users with the uncanny realism of their digital alter-egos. Since then, the interest in deepfakes has evolved rather than faded.
While their novelty has somewhat declined in casual internet use, the underlying technologies, namely machine learning, generative adversarial networks (GANs), and synthetic media generation, have matured and diversified. It’s important to distinguish between “deepfakes” and generative AI content. In the classic sense, deepfakes are hyper-realistic renderings of real people, and generative AI content is more broad, used to refer to conjuring entirely synthetic faces, voices, and personas that may never have existed. In either case, the tension between “real” and “fake” persists. And as marketers, brand managers, SME owners and everyone in the advertising and communications industry know, authenticity is the most important thing when it comes to telling our brand stories and connecting with our audiences.
Deepfakes Were Never About Deceit
To understand why deepfakes matter, we must first understand why they were developed. Deepfakes were born from a desire to augment reality, not for malicious reasons, but often to bridge practical gaps in storytelling, communication, and innovation. In its purest sense, the deepfake is not a lie; it’s a technical solution to a real-world problem.
The term “deepfake” is a blended word, taking parts of two different terms to form a whole new one. Those terms being: “deep learning” and “fake”. The term first surfaced in internet forums around 2017.
Deep learning refers to a class of machine learning that mimics the human brain’s ability to learn patterns, especially useful in processing and generating images, audio, and video. “Fake” refers to the output: a convincing replication or alteration of a person’s appearance or voice. While the name suggests deception, the technology’s original intent was not necessarily fraudulent. It was often experimental, playful, or aimed at creative enhancement.
But was there something missing from the lives of everyday people that made such technology feel necessary? Perhaps nothing that those people where aware of, but the corporations, businesses and companies that wanted the attention of those people are always striving to keep up in a world that has become faster, more global, and more visually driven. This means that there is a demand for content from those organisations, that outpaces their ability to produce it.
Thus, access to high-quality visuals has become a powerful currency in storytelling.
Deepfake technology emerged as a response to the limitations of traditional media, accessibility gaps, and an evolving digital landscape where “presence” and “persona” are no longer constrained by biology.
Do We Really Need Deepfakes?
At the core of deepfake development lies a sequence of practical challenges that reflect the growing demands of the digital era. A reason why those who are passionate about progress continue to strive to perfect deepfake technology is to aim to tackle those challenges.
One such challenge is content scalability. As digital platforms multiply and audience expectations rise, the pressure on brands and creators to continuously deliver high-quality video content becomes immense. Traditional production methods, constrained by time and budget, struggle to meet this demand. Deepfakes offer a way to produce dynamic content more efficiently. This means that content creators and the brands and companies that rely on consistently producing content can begin to reduce their dependence on the more financially taxing physical and human-based resources needed to remain excellent in the content producing space.
Access to talent, especially in marketing and media production, remains a logistical and financial obstacle for many organisations. Not every company can secure high-profile actors or influencers, nor can they guarantee repeated access to them. Deepfakes enable brands to simulate ideal presenters or ambassadors who remain consistent, controllable, and available at any time.
Another motivation behind the development of deepfakes is the desire to preserve and recreate digital legacies. Public figures, historical personalities, or even loved ones can now be digitally reanimated, providing a means of continuing stories that might otherwise be lost. While ethically delicate, the drive to maintain a living connection to the past through visual media is an important element of the human experience, and thus a powerful force behind the continued drive to integrate the technology.
Global communication presents yet another hurdle. Brands operating internationally often face barriers in translating their messaging across languages and cultures. Deepfakes, particularly when paired with advanced voice cloning and facial mapping, make it possible for a single speaker to appear fluent in multiple languages, complete with synchronised lip movements and natural facial expressions. This creates a seamless and authentic user experience that traditional dubbing cannot match.
This technology serves as a new frontier for creative expression. It allows marketers and creators to go beyond the boundaries of reality, crafting fictional personas, hyper-realistic histories, or fantastical scenarios that were previously impossible, financially or practically, to bring to life. With deepfakes, the creative palette expands, opening up new ways to tell stories, provoke emotion, and engage audiences with originality.
What Marketers Risk by Ignoring Deepfake Technology
A quest to connect has always been the underlying drive for marketing and marketers. Whether it’s through a compelling narrative, a relatable character, or a timely message, the objective is always to reach and resonate with audiences. But today’s digital environment is a crowded arena, one where content floods every platform at every hour. Attention is scarce, algorithms are fickle, and audiences have become both more skeptical and more demanding.
In such a saturated ecosystem, how do you stand out without resorting to clickbait or compromising your brand’s integrity? The answer, for many, lies in the pursuit of authenticity—a quality that feels increasingly rare and thus all the more valuable.
This quest makes the idea of using something “fake” seem counter-intuitive. After all, marketing already walks a delicate line between persuasion and performance, and the last thing we want is to risk our audiences losing trust in us by being outright deceptive. However, deepfake technology offers more than illusion; it offers innovation. For those willing to interrogate the discomfort of integrating a new technology into their daily lives, a different picture emerges. Deepfakes can be a tool for connection, not deception, if wielded with transparency, creativity, and ethical intent.
This undertaking invites us to reframe “fake” not as a synonym for falsehood, but as a medium through which authenticity can be scaled, personalised, and reimagined. Think of the theatrical arts. What is depicted on stage can be considered “fake”, but the actors are telling stories and revealing and exploring experiences essential to the human condition that are far from falsehoods, in fact, they are the utmost truth.
The challenges faced by marketers, brand managers, SME owners and all of us in the advertising and communications industries are not just creative, they are logistical, economic, and structural.
If you’re not thinking about scalable content, you’ll struggle to keep up with the constant demand for fresh, high-quality visuals across every platform. Traditional production cycles can’t compete with the speed and flexibility required by today’s digital marketing strategies.
Deepfakes offer a powerful way to extend your content library by presenting consistent messaging, faces, and tones across dozens of campaigns.
If you’re not localising your messaging, you’re leaving entire markets untapped. Global audiences are reaching their limit when it comes to dubbing and subtitles. Long form content has an attention buy in, but for brand messaging, fluent, native interactions are becoming the expectation. Deepfake-enabled localisation can help you meet this expectation convincingly, making it seem as though a spokesperson speaks directly to each region in its own language, tone, and culture. This level of cultural nuance can be the difference between a campaign that resonates and one that falls flat.
If you’re not exploring new creative forms, your brand risks becoming irrelevant. Audiences are increasingly drawn to novel formats like interactive videos, AR experiences, and personalised storytelling. As a brand who wants to get its message across and connect with those people, you need to keep pace. Deepfake technology, used ethically, can serve as a gateway into these new dimensions of creative engagement. From personalised video messages to resurrecting historic figures in brand narratives, it enables campaigns that are emotionally rich, visually dynamic, and highly memorable.
Ultimately, this isn’t about replacing human creativity—it’s about amplifying it.
Deepfakes are not a shortcut to authenticity, but they are a new language through which authenticity can be expressed. Brands that learn to speak it will not only future-proof their strategies, but also forge deeper, more meaningful relationships with the people they aim to serve. The risk isn’t in embracing deepfakes, the risk is in failing to recognise their potential.
How Deepfakes Can Re-Imagine Other Industries
Beyond marketing and advertising, several industries have already confronted—and in many cases, embraced—solutions to the very challenges that deepfakes address.
In education, the introduction of virtual lecturers and AI-powered avatars will transform how information is delivered. These digital educators, modelled to appear lifelike and relatable, provide scalable, personalised instruction that adapts to the learner’s pace and style. This helps overcome geographical and economic limitations in access to quality education, a problem not dissimilar to the content scalability challenge faced by marketers.
The healthcare industry is making huge strides in the research and development of synthetic data. The idea is to train medical AI systems without compromising patient privacy by generating synthetic patient profiles to simulate real-world diversity in conditions and responses. This ensures accuracy in diagnostics while sidestepping ethical pitfalls. This balancing act is one that marketing professionals too must master when working with personalisation and data-driven content.
Customer service has similarly evolved with the deployment of AI-generated avatars on websites and mobile apps. These synthetic representatives provide 24/7 support in multiple languages and cultural tones, maintaining consistency and reliability that human teams struggle to achieve at scale. By simulating empathetic interactions, companies improve user satisfaction while controlling operational costs.
The methods that journalists use bring us news and information can also be enhanced by deepfakes. Imagine using reconstructions to visualise events for which no live footage exists, or to simulate possible outcomes in investigative pieces. Though controversial, these possibilities demonstrate the role deepfakes can play in narrative construction when transparency and purpose are clear.
The film and entertainment industry is probably the best known for embracing deepfakes. These creators have long experimented with digital techniques to recreate actors, either to complete scenes after a performer’s death or to de-age characters for narrative continuity. While the results of such choices are debated, the reactions and the conversation around those choices and methods show how deepfakes can meet practical needs in storytelling without sacrificing emotional impact.
Across these examples, it becomes evident that synthetic media technologies, including deepfakes, are not confined to fiction or novelty—they are already solving real problems in powerful and often imaginative ways.
Deepfake Solutions-Map for Marketers
Examining how industries such as entertainment, education and healthcare are solving their problems can and will give marketers, brand managers, SME owners and those of us in the advertising and communications valuable insights into how to solve problems in our own industry. Progress happens to us all, so we can lean on the learnings of others to propel us all forward.
There are creative combinations of the solutions that other industries have implemented. Here is how each of those can be a way to leverage our learnings:
- Digital Legacy + Language Barriers = Global brand ambassadors who “speak” directly to every market in the native tongue, without re-recording.
- Content Scalability + Access to Talent = Campaigns featuring photorealistic avatars of fictional spokespeople, crafted once and used indefinitely.
- Creative Expression + Digital Preservation = Brands reviving their founders or former mascots to tell the story of their origins in a meaningful, modern way.
These combinations reveal a path forward. This path rejects dishonesty and pushes us toward enriched storytelling. If marketers treat deepfake technology not as a trick but as a tool, they can explore bold new strategies. The same authenticity consumers crave can be delivered in fresh formats, provided that the message remains human-centred, the content will not be judged to be mere gimmicks, but will be received as creative answers to genuine challenges.
8 Ways to Use Deepfakes Effectively
At first glance, deepfakes might seem fundamentally opposed to authenticity, but when applied with care and transparency, they can serve as powerful tools for connection, personalisation, and storytelling. In an increasingly digital and fragmented world, where audiences crave meaningful interactions and tailored experiences, deepfakes offer marketers, brand managers, SME owners, and communication professionals new ways to elevate their strategies while respecting the need for ethical responsibility. Try implementing these methods that leverage deepfake technology to strengthen your brand messaging and engagement efforts.
- Multilingual Spokespeople
One of the biggest barriers to global marketing is language. While subtitles and dubbing serve a purpose, they often dilute the emotional nuance of a message. Deepfake technology allows brands to create videos where the same spokesperson, whether a founder, ambassador, or celebrity, appears to speak multiple languages with natural lip-sync, consistent facial expressions, and cultural sensitivity. This preserves the human connection while making content accessible to diverse markets. The result is messaging that feels personal, seamless, and inclusive, helping brands build trust across linguistic and cultural boundaries.
- Interactive Campaigns
Audiences increasingly seek two-way interactions rather than passive consumption. With deepfakes, brands can create interactive experiences where consumers engage with virtual versions of celebrities, brand founders, or characters who respond to questions or comments in real time. While the dialogue may be scripted or AI-assisted, the illusion of a live, personal conversation fosters a sense of intimacy and participation. These campaigns can turn traditional promotions into memorable experiences, deepening emotional engagement and generating shareable moments that extend campaign reach organically.
- Synthetic Influencers
Influencer marketing remains a powerful channel, but it carries risks. From unpredictable behaviour to brand misalignment there is a lot that can go wrong. With deepfakes we could harness the creation of AI-generated personas that fully embody a brand’s identity, values, and tone. These synthetic influencers can be customised in appearance, voice, and personality, offering complete control while still delivering relatable, engaging content. They can also maintain a continuous presence, adapt quickly to trends, and engage with multiple audience segments simultaneously, offering scalability that traditional influencers simply cannot match.
- Brand Heritage Storytelling
Every brand has a story, but few are able to bring their history to life in a way that resonates with modern audiences. Deepfake technology can reimagine key historical figures, founders, or spokespeople, allowing them to “narrate” the brand’s journey in visually compelling formats. By blending archival footage with synthetic media, brands can produce captivating retrospectives that honour their legacy while remaining relevant to contemporary consumers. These narratives can be deployed across websites, exhibitions, and campaigns, offering a unique blend of education and entertainment.
- Product Demonstration at Scale
Demonstrating complex products or services to diverse audiences often requires customisation to address varying cultural norms, interests, and needs. With deepfakes, a single presenter can be adapted into numerous versions that resonate with different demographics, varying language, tone, attire, or cultural references while maintaining brand consistency. This allows marketers to deliver highly targeted demos at scale, without the logistical and financial burden of reshooting content multiple times. The ability to personalise demonstrations helps customers feel seen and understood, fostering stronger purchasing confidence.
- Ethical Satire and Parody
Humour remains one of the most effective ways to cut through digital clutter. Deepfakes offer brands the ability to create light-hearted, clearly labelled parodies or satirical content that drives engagement and encourages sharing. By being transparent about the synthetic nature of the media, brands can avoid accusations of deception while still leveraging the novelty and creativity that deepfakes offer. When handled with care, these playful campaigns humanise brands, demonstrate cultural awareness, and inject levity into even the most serious industries.
- Crisis Communication Simulation
Reputation management is critical in today’s fast-moving media landscape. Deepfake technology can be used internally to simulate crisis scenarios for PR teams, allowing them to rehearse responses to high-pressure situations. Synthetic videos can replicate the delivery of difficult announcements by key public figures, providing teams with realistic training opportunities. This preparedness ensures that when real-world challenges arise, communication teams are better equipped to respond swiftly, empathetically, and effectively.
- Customised Client Messaging
Personalisation is no longer a luxury, it’s an expectation. Deepfakes can be used to create individualised video messages where, for example, the CEO or a lead salesperson appears to address each recipient by name, referencing specific client details or interests. This level of personalisation enhances the customer experience, making outreach feel uniquely tailored while remaining scalable for larger audiences. Such customised messages can be particularly impactful in high-value B2B sales, onboarding processes, or investor relations, where relationships and attention to detail drive decision-making.
While deepfakes naturally raise ethical concerns that cannot be ignored, they also open up possibilities for brands to connect with audiences in unprecedented ways. When used transparently and responsibly, deepfakes don’t undermine authenticity—they enhance it by enabling personalisation, accessibility, and storytelling at a scale previously unattainable. Marketers, brand managers, SME owners, and communications professionals who approach this technology thoughtfully can unlock new forms of meaningful engagement, turning synthetic media into genuine human connection.
Updated: 4 July 2025
USA
