In a space where most advertising firms still juggle traditional agency models, Excellent Publicity is leading a quiet revolution—powered by automation, accessibility, and audacious ambition. At the helm is Vaishal Dalal, a Chartered Accountant-turned-adtech entrepreneur, whose journey from a failed venture and a ₹75,000 investment to building a ₹100+ crore media powerhouse is nothing short of inspiring.
Founded over 13 years ago, Excellent Publicity has evolved into one of India’s fastest-growing 360° media-tech platforms, redefining how brands—especially MSMEs and mid-sized corporates—plan and buy media. With a robust tech backbone, zero-agency-fee model, and a deep understanding of both offline and digital channels, the company has become a go-to partner for over 1,300 brands in FY 2024–25, including marquee names like Google, Amazon, Amul, Starbucks, Flipkart, Axis Bank, and Asian Paints.
In this exclusive interaction with MediaNews4U, Vaishal Dalal shares the vision behind Excellent Publicity’s Virtual CMO model, how his franchise-led backend empowers 150+ small agencies across India, and why he believes the future of media lies at the intersection of AI, intuition, and access.
Q) What inspired you to shift from a Chartered Accountant’s path to launching an adtech venture with just ₹75,000?
Vaishal Dalal: Ironically, Excellent Publicity didn’t start with ₹75,000—I had already lost that in a previous failed venture. As one of the youngest Chartered Accountants, my father gave me two years to explore my entrepreneurial ambitions. I was always full of ideas.
My first venture was an online platform for menu listings, food ordering, and table bookings—in 2011, when Zomato was still FoodieBay. I submitted this idea as a project to the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and won an award. But I realized changing user habits would need heavy marketing and sustained losses—something I wasn’t prepared for, especially with no awareness of angel or VC funding.
Later, I launched a magazine for commuters in autos, taxis, and buses. I handled everything—writing, design, sales, execution. After one issue, it became clear it wasn’t viable. However, we started receiving enquiries—not for magazine ads, but for ads on the vehicles themselves. We initially turned them down, but eventually executed a campaign for a local sweet shop on 500 autos—and that pivot changed everything.
With funds exhausted, my co-founder Manan and I stood at a busy Ahmedabad junction holding signs that read “Advertise with us.” That was our first real push into ad sales.
I still remember mistaking “Chitra Publicity” for a person named Chitra Madam—completely unaware it was a leading hoarding agency! That was the level of inexperience we started with.
But once inside the industry, I saw immense opportunity—advertising was unorganized, full of inefficiencies, and ripe for disruption through technology. That insight gave birth to Excellent Publicity and shaped our journey.
Q) What was the vision behind building an AI-powered platform? How do Excellent Publicity differ from other AdTech players in terms of your product and service?
Vaishal Dalal: Early on, we were often asked: “How are you different from existing agencies?” That question shaped our journey. As Excellent Publicity grew, my vision became clear: build a global advertising platform out of India—especially since no Indian agency currently ranks among the world’s top 20.
Post-2020, while digital agencies surged, we identified a huge gap in the offline advertising sector—hoardings, radio, print, cinema—which remained fragmented and unorganized. For example, Chennai alone has 1,000+ hoarding vendors, with no centralized system, unlike the structured digital ad ecosystem on platforms like Google or Meta.
To bridge that, we launched our AI-powered media buying platform on excellentpublicity.com, integrating over 50,000 offline vendors from across India—including Tier 2, 3, and 4 towns. We standardized their media inventories with transparent pricing, visuals, and location data, enabling advertisers to plan and book campaigns online—just like e-commerce transformed retail.
Our aim is to democratize advertising access. With over 500,000 advertising options, from banners to IPL integrations, brands get a one-stop platform for any format. And what truly sets us apart is our AI engine, which goes beyond content generation to deliver data-driven brand strategies, competitor analysis, campaign planning, and performance forecasting.
For example, a local jeweler in Ludhiana can understand what Tanishq or TBZ are doing, and receive a custom strategy—suggesting the ideal messaging, media mix, geography, and campaign duration—based on 14 years of our campaign data and insights from 2022–2025.
We also charge zero agency fees, provide premium tools typically reserved for large networks, and deliver proposals within 4–6 hours—far quicker than most agencies.
Our global ambition is simple: whether you’re in New York or Dubai, you should be able to log on to ExcellentPublicity.com and launch a campaign anywhere in the world—from Mumbai to Sydney—in minutes. That’s the future we’re building.
Q) With over 500,000 media assets, how do you tackle discoverability and relevance? What’s your approach to curating such a massive inventory for brands?
Vaishal Dalal: Managing discoverability and relevance across a portfolio of over 500,000 media assets is a significant challenge—and also our biggest strength. Our approach is built on four foundational pillars: campaign intelligence, industry research, AI technology, and client collaboration.
First, we’ve archived insights from all campaigns we’ve executed over the past 14 years, spanning diverse industries, geographies, objectives, and budgets. We’ve also created a structured database of third-party campaigns across the industry for the past three years. These are continuously analyzed to identify patterns, effectiveness, and media performance. Much of this work powers our monthly research reports, which are now regularly referenced by platforms like MediaNews4U and others.
Second, these insights feed into our AI recommendation engine, trained on actual market behavior, success metrics, and client feedback. It doesn’t just suggest media assets—it analyzes campaign goals, compares historical outcomes, and recommends a customized media mix tailored to specific industries, geographies, and business objectives.
For instance, even if two real estate developers are launching similar projects in the same area, the recommended strategy may vary—based on differences in brand positioning, budgets, campaign expectations, and even previous campaign performance. This ensures each client receives a media plan that’s highly contextual and goal-specific.
Third, our extensive client interaction process plays a critical role. While AI and data provide the backbone, human input is essential. Clients often come with strong preferences—whether it’s a specific hoarding location, a preferred radio station, or a medium they want to avoid. We account for these inputs, refining the recommendation accordingly.
Ultimately, it’s the blend of experience, data science, and listening to the client that allows us to make sense of a massive inventory and deliver relevant, high-performing plans. This combination ensures that our recommendations are not only efficient and cost-effective but also aligned with what truly matters to the client.
Q) So do you only act as an aggregator, or do you also execute campaigns on the ground—especially across the markets where you have a presence in India?
Vaishal Dalal: We are both—an aggregator and a full-scale execution partner. While we aggregate media inventory from across the world, we also take complete ownership of end-to-end campaign execution.
Our headquarters are in Ahmedabad, with operational branches in Mumbai, Delhi, Pune, Surat, and Dubai. We had also set up operations in Bangalore, though that’s currently on hold. These local offices enable us to serve clients in major regions with on-ground support, while our digital capabilities allow us to manage clients globally through virtual collaboration tools like Zoom and VC platforms.
To date, we’ve successfully executed over 200,000 campaigns for clients from 23 countries, across a wide range of sectors. Our execution footprint spans all six continents, excluding only Antarctica due to the absence of advertising media there.
Whether it’s a campaign on a hoarding at Mumbai’s Worli Sea Face, digital signage at Times Square, a projection on the Burj Khalifa, branding on the London Eye, or hyperlocal activations in small towns—or even an airport in a remote region of Nigeria—we have the capability to plan, coordinate, and execute seamlessly.
Our integrated tech stack and growing vendor network allow us to scale and customize campaigns efficiently. So, while we do offer aggregation at a large scale, our strength lies in execution with precision—bringing both reach and reliability to every campaign we run.
Q) In a world rushing toward full automation, how do you ensure human intuition still plays a role in campaign strategy?
Vaishal Dalal: That’s a very important question—and one that goes to the heart of how we operate at Excellent Publicity. While automation and AI bring unmatched efficiency, advertising remains inherently subjective. What appeals to one individual may not resonate with another. Campaigns—especially in offline media or influencer marketing—require context, cultural sensitivity, and emotional resonance that pure algorithms can’t replicate.
Our campaign strategy framework follows four key steps, and while the first three are rooted in historical data, AI, and research, the fourth—human interaction—is indispensable. Sitting down with the client, understanding their vision, preferences, tone, and even unspoken expectations, allows us to refine and customize the AI-generated media mix in ways that technology alone cannot.
For instance, certain messages may work brilliantly on paper but feel off-brand or culturally misaligned when presented. These nuances only come to light through conversation. It’s this human layer—intuition, judgment, and empathy—that ensures the campaign is not just efficient, but also emotionally intelligent and truly effective.
AI will continue to shape how we optimize and scale campaigns, but the spark that makes a campaign memorable or viral often comes from human insight. That’s something we at Excellent Publicity are deeply committed to preserving.
Q) The Virtual CMO model is quite futuristic. What kind of brands or stages of growth benefit most from this plug-and-play setup?
The Virtual CMO model was born out of the need to simplify today’s increasingly complex marketing ecosystem. Earlier, a single CMO could manage all marketing activities, but post-COVID, with the explosion of media channels—from ATL and BTL to digital, influencer, and AI-led campaigns—it’s no longer feasible for one individual to handle everything. Ideally, a brand now needs at least four different specialists: one for offline marketing, one for digital, another to collect real-time on-ground feedback from dealers and customers, and a fourth for content, creative, and partnerships. For most MSMEs and growing brands, hiring such a team in-house can cost upwards of ₹60–70 lakhs annually, which is often not sustainable.
That’s where our Virtual CMO model becomes a game-changer. At Excellent Publicity, we don’t charge agency fees; our revenue comes from media owners, which allows us to offer expert marketing support to clients at no extra cost. Through this model, we assign each brand a dedicated account lead, supported by specialists across media types—offline, digital, creative, and partnerships. Brands only need a single internal marketing coordinator to interface with us, while our team handles strategy, execution, reporting, and optimization. Whether the brand engages with us on a per-campaign basis via competitive L1-L2-L3 pricing or chooses a low-retainer model, our focus remains on delivering value.
This plug-and-play setup is ideal for startups, MSMEs, and even large brands aiming to expand without scaling internal teams. It enables companies to operate with the agility and intelligence of a full-stack marketing department—without the overhead. Our goal is to empower brands to focus on growth while we manage their marketing backend with speed, expertise, and precision.
Q) What is your resource Size for Virtual CMO?
Vaishal Dalal: At Excellent Publicity, we’ve built one of the most robust teams among mid-sized agencies focused on MSMEs. Our Virtual CMO model is powered by a dedicated team of 150 professionals, split between 70 sales experts and 80 media planners and buyers. The sales team is trained to understand diverse industry needs and guide clients across all media verticals, while our backend team manages vendor negotiations, campaign execution, media planning, research, and competitor analysis.
What sets us apart is the inbound nature of our business. We currently engage with around 50 corporates daily, all through organic inquiries—we do not rely on telecalling or cold outreach. Our platform, excellentpublicity.com, receives over 1.5 lakh monthly visits, making it one of the most trafficked media planning portals in India. This digital ecosystem allows us to serve clients efficiently across regions. While we already have inventory access in India, the UAE, and parts of Africa, we are actively expanding to other global markets. Our team size and technology-backed platform give us the agility and depth to operate as a full-scale Virtual CMO for brands across sectors and geographies.
Q) You’ve empowered 100+ small agencies across India with your backend. How does this franchise-led model work—and what makes it scalable in an otherwise people-heavy business?
Vaishal Dalal: The franchise-style model we’ve developed is built on a simple insight: no single agency or brand can be present everywhere, especially in a country as vast and diverse as India—or globally for that matter. Over time, we’ve built a strong backend infrastructure with access to over 50,000 vendors and 5 lakh media options, something few agencies can replicate. This scale allows us to support more than 150–200 agencies, ranging from boutique setups to large digital agencies handling campaigns for major brands like Flipkart, Samsung, Amazon, and Zomato.
Many of these agencies have strong client relationships and local market knowledge but lack access to the right media rates, tools, or planning resources. By partnering with Excellent Publicity, they get full access to our media ecosystem—across geographies and formats—without the need for heavy investment or building large in-house teams.
We operate on a non-compete, trust-based model, wherein we agree not to approach their clients directly. Our team can join client meetings to provide expert guidance, while billing can be structured flexibly—either directly or through the agency. This approach helps them retain clients, expand offerings, and boost both top-line and bottom-line growth.
For smaller agencies located in Tier 2 or Tier 3 cities—say, Kakinada or Trivandrum—this model is transformative. It gives them a national and even global execution capability without the associated overheads. And for us, it has helped extend the reach of the Excellent Publicity brand, building a collaborative network where everyone scales together.
Q) With the growing trend of DIY marketing tools, how do you balance simplicity for users with the complexity of real media buying?
Vaishal Dalal: The rise of DIY marketing tools has certainly empowered brands, but it has also made media planning more layered and time-consuming. From managing multiple channels to navigating rising costs, the complexity can often overwhelm business owners—especially those who’d rather focus on core operations.
At Excellent Publicity, our approach is simple: we take the complexity out of media buying so our clients can focus on what they do best—running their businesses. While clients are welcome to be part of the process, we never burden them with the backend intricacies of media planning or buying unless they want that level of involvement.
Our strength lies in our dedicated backend and sales teams who offer hands-on support—right from campaign design to media mix optimization. If a client feels overwhelmed or unsure, we step in to guide, simplify, and execute. This hybrid model combines the ease of a plug-and-play solution with the depth of real-time human expertise, ensuring that even the most complex media strategies are delivered in a manner that feels effortless for the client.
