There was a time when an entrepreneur was supposed to be seen as bound to the corporate domain only, especially when it comes to Founders and CEOs. But with time, as the medium of advertising is changing, founders and CEOs can be seen taking a road of glamour and showbiz to uplift their brand. Entrepreneurs also know the power of storytelling and emotional connection in creating a strong impact of brand on consumers. For stronger impact, instead of going with actors and celebrities, founders took the front foot to endorse their brand themselves and maintain a close relationship with their consumers.
After the hype of Shark Tank India season 1 & 2, many of its shark like Peyush Bansal, Vineeta Singh, and Anupam Mittal was seen in the endorsement of their brand whereas meme market Ashneer Grover was also seen in some of the web series and ads. But Shark Tank’s founders weren’t the first ones to be featured in their brand endorsements. Many more founders were seen experimenting with their presence in the zone of advertising their brands via endorsements.
List of Founders and CEOs who have been featured in ads and series.
1. Anupam Mittal
Shaadi.com founder Anupam Mittal has taken the seat of advertising and holds the seat belt of endorsement tightest by featuring in the new ad film of his own company Shaadi.com. This campaign could be said a complete package on how to use a founder in his own company’s endorsement.
The ad film depicts the journey of Anupam Mittal and his struggle in building an empire, called, Shaadi.com. Storytelling where the founder himself is kept as the protagonist speaking about the struggles and obstacles he faced while building rocks for Shaadi.com. This ad was motivating, and inspiring, great marketing and the emotional connection Anupam build with his consumers via this ad, made it an impactful one. Anupam was also featured in another ad film on Shaadi.com where he’s promoting the brand’s live feature.
2. Vineeta Singh
Sugar cosmetic founder and CEO Vineeta Singh surprised us all with her fun and jolly acting skills. Vineeta has been currently in trend after featuring in Shark Tank (S1 and S2) and with this popularity, Vineeta was featured in her own brand, Sugar’s ad film with Ranveer Singh and Tamannaah Bhatia.
Vineeta’s sense of humor is also top-notch, and she knows well how to use meme games for her profit. Lately, Vineeta was in talks and memes because of her resemblance with one of the characters of the movie 3 Idiots (Raju’s mother). Vineeta took this joke as a huge opportunity for marketing, and she created a whole campaign keeping her resemblance to that character as a hero. Now we can say that sugar cosmetics might be transfer proof but Vineeta’s acting and marketing skills have transferred well and spotted a rigid mark on every one of us.
3. Aman Gupta
Boat co-founder Aman Gupta is the most loved shark on Shark Tank. The frank and bindass nature of Aman has made him everyone’s favorite. “Hum Bhi bnalenge” fame Aman Gupta was featured in collab with Netflix x Boat. The witty plot line and outstanding way of delivery by Aman but this campaign to create fire on the internet.
This campaign was executed with a banger Music Video and alluring graphics featuring Kiara Advani, Masaba Gupta, and others have made this collab a grand campaign. Magic Happens when India’s Number 1 Wearable Brand and World’s Number 1 Streaming Platform come together with such cool features.
4. Ghazal Alagh
Mamaearth founder, Ghazal Alagh, promoted her brand in a very clever and witty way. Popular from Shark tank India, Ghazal got an awesome idea to promote her new product “Goodness I pledge offer” in a very quirky style. Ghazal was featured in the campaign of her brand where they created a parody of Shark Tank called, Dolphin Tank, and little kids were meant to play the role of Sharks in this campaign. Ghazal was shown as the participant of the show who is pitching her new product whereas the kids were outstanding at the mimicry of judges including Ashneer Grover, Namita Thapar, and others.
5. Peyush Bansal
Lenskart Founder Peyush Bansal may look calm and composed, but nobody could ever think that he would be seen in a campaign that too in collab with Bollywood gossip box Karan Johar. Lenskart pulls out a very smart way to launch its stylish frame at very affordable prices. Putting a very two contradictory personalities in one frame to draw attention to one product was a tremendous job done by Tanmay Bhat and the team.
The campaign was loved by viewers at such a level that Lenskart came with 2 more ad films in the form of extended episodes featuring Peyush Bansal and KJo. The whole comment section was flooded with comments like “The only ad I can watch without skipping”, “Peyush is still a better actor than most star kids launched by Karan Johar”, “What an interesting campaign”.
6. MDH
MDH has been the OG of advertising. The founder of MDH, the Late Mr. Dharampal Gulati started the trend of founders featuring in their brand campaign. He has been featured in almost all of the brand campaigns. Mr. Dharampal Gulati was also used to get a feature on every package of MDH masala as he was also known as spice king.
A large, brilliantly groomed mustache and the red turban made a hallmark of MDH. MDH founder was also awarded Padma Bhushan for his contribution to the spice industry.
7. Shashank Mehta
Shashank Mehta, the founder of, The Whole Truth Foods, can be seen in almost all the advertisements of the brand talking about why one should choose one brand over the other. Shashank Mehta can be seen creating a personal connection with its consumers by advocating for them the benefits of eating healthy and nutritious. The ad film also features a comedian and content creator Rohan Joshi.
Honorable Mention
Ashneer Grover
Ashneer Grover built a huge fanbase through Shark tank season 1 through his “straight to face” attitude and his iconic dialogues like “Yeh sab Dialogue hai”, and “Bilkul bakwass hai”. Ashneer Grover soon became a huge name in the world of memes and in no time, he become a trend. Using his huge fanbase, many series and commercials started using Ashneer’s face as a medium for promotions. Lately, Ashneer was seen getting featured in a very popular TVF series Pitchers, where he can be seen in the promo as well as in one of the episodes of the series. The promo itself got over 10 million views by far just by the thunder storming presence of Ashneer on the screen.
Not only Pitchers but Ashneer has also been seen with Bhuvan bam to promote his upcoming series Taaza Khabar where we can witness Ashneer’s comic and witty character. Here we can that Ashneer Grover is not just a business perfectionist but also a good actor. He has also been featured in one of the podcasts with content creators like Sanyam Sharma and Ranveer Allahbadia.
