Great Companies: How did you get your idea or concept for the business?
Vaishal Dalal: After completing my CA in 2011, I took the chance to explore as I had one clear goal building something of my own. At that time, Manan my co-founder and best friend, we were 21 years old and I proposed the idea of "On Wheels" to him. On wheels was basically a magazine that we wrote and designed ourselves. We even got pitched and got some brands to advertise their products/services in it. The idea was to build shelves in the modes of public transport mediums such as auto, taxis, and buses to keep the magazine there for people to read while they commute. But after a month of starting this, the brand asked us if their ads can be placed on the vehicle itself instead of the magazine and that gave us the idea of starting transit advertising and sparked the idea of starting an advertising agency. At that very moment, the idea of Excellent Publicity popped into my head and I immediately knew how I want to go ahead with it.
Great Companies: What are the various services provided by Excellent Publicity?
Vaishal Dalal: We are a 360-degree Marcom agency and we deliver all kinds of advertising services a brand needs. We have divided our services into 4 primary segments: Offline Media Marketing, Digital Media Marketing, Corporate Gifting, and Sports and showbiz marketing.
Great Companies: What makes Excellent Publicity different from hundreds of other similar service providers?
Vaishal Dalal: Excellent Publicity is an employee-oriented company. We believe that an employee is always at the core of any company and that's why we try to provide the friendliest culture possible, we have made sure that access to upper management is easy, Manan and I both are available for our employees whenever they need us. Besides, our team plays a huge role in making excellent publicity a successful organization.
Our team is filled with young, dynamic, and dedicated people who are always eager to learn and deliver the best to our clients. We have a fair incentive model, and we make sure to give promotions or hikes on one's performance but not based on their degree, experience or seniority. And because of our diverse services and upgraded working model we are growing constantly year-on-year.
Great Companies: What were the struggles and challenges you faced and how did you overcome them?
Vaishal Dalal: We have faced many struggles in these 11 years. Manan and I, None of us are from the advertising field, and initially, we faced many challenges to make a place in such a competitive industry, We used to work day and night and used learned everything on our own. It was a trial-and-error process for us. As a company, not many people know this but at the very start in 2011 we got conned for 7 lakhs and which was more than the overall profit we made that year we felt like we have already hit the rock bottom but we did not want to give up. After that, I also remember having a hard time laying the foundation of excellent publicity in Mumbai, the initial phase was challenging even though I had a number of clients because it was not enough to sustain in such a big and expensive city and I remember almost giving up on the idea of expanding the Excellent Publicity to Mumbai. But could not give it up just like that, After some time I went again worked harder than ever, and grabbed 5 big clients including Mitashi, Wockhardt Hospitals, and JetKing in just a month. We faced many challenges during the time of Covid as well, we had to change our business model at that time to keep on going and we also made sure to take care of our employees in every which way possible. When other companies were laying off employees or cutting off their salaries, I made sure to give my employees their full salaries and not to lay off a single employee, For this, we had to make and adapt a lot of new changes which was not a piece of cake for any one of us, but we made it possible.
Great Companies: How do you plan to grow in the future? What does 5 years down the line look like for Excellent Publicity?
Vaishal Dalal: Our goal is big, Our last year’s turnover was a total of 45 Cr. which we outlasted recently this year in just 7 months by reaching 50 Cr. and we are planning to close the year by reaching 100 Cr. Manan and I have planned everything accordingly. Currently other than Pan-India, At the global level, we are providing our services in Dubai, and our plan is to deliver our services in as many countries as possible globally.
Great Companies: If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be?
Vaishal Dalal: There are three things that I always tell people to follow
First of all, keep on doing the hard work and success will follow. Of course, success and failure are not in our hands, our job is to make sure that our efforts are in the right direction. Be patient and be devoted to what you do, and give your best in every way possible. if not now but in the future, you will succeed.
Secondly, if there is a will there's a way. At times we might feel that things are not going as planned or it seems impossible but most of the time, we do achieve it. So it may seem difficult or impossible now but won't be in the near future.
And the third one everyone should remind themselves regularly is that "Do not settle for anything less than perfection".
Website : https://www.excellentpublicity.com/