We first started working with identity experts Onfido in 2020 and the programme started with us media training the spokespeople who had been nominated to take part in the PR programme. This involved face-to-face in London ( before the lock down!) and remote for spokespeople based in the United States. Then the real work began.
What We Did
Mainstream broadcast media had not heard of Onfido before the programme began. They were a start-up partly funded by Oxford University and our first challenge was to make them a go-to source for stories involving identity fraud, biometrics and AI – at that time really not something that was being talked about.
The start of the programme coincided with Covid, and Onfido were at the forefront of the so called coronavirus immunity passports so that gave us a compelling and newsworthy reason to reach out to broadcasters offering the founder Husayn Kassai who started the company with two friends when he was a student at Oxford University.
Shout! Communications has also been involved as broadcast advisors for the launch of Onfido’s Fraud Lab. In six months the Fraud Lab has improved fraud detection on documents by 5x. The lab can mass produce synthetic attacks. The lab in conjunction with the Fraud Report has been covered by BBC Click, Sky News, GMB (see below) and BBC Morning Live.
Our frequent catch ups allow us to anticipate what each week might bring in terms of pitching opportunities, whilst also watching the news closely for any news-hijacking angles. Deep Fakes using AI technology is a hot topic with Taylor Swift recently ‘promoting’ Le Creuset.
Challenges
Onfido is a B2B identity verification company whose clients include HSBC and Deliveroo and perhaps the most difficult challenge of all has been convincing broadcasters to cover technology stories when the technology is not yet mainstream – often built by developers for developers. That said broadcasters are interested in how their technology can prevent ID fraud, password misuse and deep fakes all of which Onfido can comment on.
A further challenge is spokesperson availability particularly now the company has been bought out by US tech giant Entrust. The chances are, if there’s a big breaking identification fraud news story, they will already be involved in it as part of their day job. Headquartered in San Francisco and London also brings it challenges with broadcasters wanting spokespeople willing and available in both time zones.
Outcome
Within just a few months we secured opportunities on CNN, APTN and BBC World Business Reports. Gradually as the company grew with investment from US investor TPG growth broadcasters in the UK and US started going directly to Onfido for comment; on topics like password security, machine learning and deep fakes. You can’t get a much better example of success than that.
We have continued to build on this success. We regularly news hijack and support Onfido with original research including their annual fraud report which pinpoints when fraudsters are most active and highlights year-on-year increases in digitally forged identities.
