Dentsu Lab in India trades innovation theatre for rapid prototypes

With the launch of Dentsu Lab in India on 15 July 2025, Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Gurgaon now join Tokyo, London, and Warsaw in Dentsu's network of innovation hubs designed to bridge creativity and code. At a time when creativity is under pressure to be fast, functional, and often superficial, this network of creative R&D labs are pitching themselves as an antidote to innovation theatre—by championing rapid prototyping that is low-risk but high-reward.

However, Narayan Devanathan, president and chief strategy officer at Dentsu South Asia pointed out that we've relegated fast and functional to transactional and short term, while in reality, most experimentation or prototyping by startups is fast and functional, which is good. “So, it doesn't mean that this can't be creative or built for the long term,” he elaborated in an exclusive chat with Campaign. “Creativity has always been integral to ROI and it's not just a bottom funnel element. With Dentsu Lab, we are making that even more visible.”

Founded in 2014 by Yasuharu Sasaki, dentsu’s global chief creative officer, Dentsu Lab is designed to marry human-centred design with deep tech, with half of Tokyo Lab's output focused on societal transformation. The India Lab aims to follow suit, ensuring its creative R&D does more than dazzle—it shifts mindsets and potentially, systems.

"The Tokyo model remains same—human-centric, offering business value and societal transformation. But Dentsu Lab is connecting creativity and technology, and creativity needs to be based on human insight. So, the philosophy is same," Sasaki explained to Campaign. Yet, India’s cultural specificity means the lab here is not a copy-paste exercise.

As Amit Wadhwa, CEO of Dentsu Creative and Media Brands, South Asia, Dentsu, put it, "You can’t cut copy paste anything in India, as we all know. But we can take a lot in terms of dentsu Lab’s technical prowess and learning. The insights are very peculiar to the country."

Devanathan seconds that pointing out that one of the oldest cliches is that you can’t box India into one compartment. He claims that this diversity is “beautifully visible all the time” at Dentsu and it can’t not have it at the heart of what the agency does.

This ethos reflects in some of the prototypes the India Lab is showcasing: from Garuda Rakshak, a drone-based public safety tool, to Motorola Deep Connect, which blends walkie-talkie with cellular tech to close remote connectivity gaps, to the Unfiltered History Tour, which reframes colonial narratives using AR.

The Motorola Deep Connect project is also an example of cross-Lab collaboration, with India partnering with Dentsu Portugal, offering the technology solution while its Portuguese counterpart came up with the idea. Elaborating on this, Devanathan stated that while the walkie-talkie and cellular technology existed, working cohesively the two teams connected the two.

Gurbaksh Singh, Dentsu’s chief creative officer and chief innovation officer-South Asia, is steering Dentsu Lab India’s efforts. Collaborating with clients, startups, and partners, Singh aims to develop solutions grounded in empathy and growth. He said, “We are not here to theorise about innovation. We are here to build it - fast, bold, and with intent. At Dentsu Lab in India, every challenge is a live brief, and every prototype a shot at solving something real... Our strength lies in blending creative ingenuity with emerging technology to deliver outcomes that create meaningful change, not eventually, but now.”

So, how does Dentsu measure impact when creative R&D is about changing behaviours rather than driving immediate ROI? Sasaki said, "Societal transformation is about changing the people's mindset and this remains the same in all regions... we try to listen to changes in emotional outcomes that have a long-term effect rather than just short-term changes like purchasing behaviour, growth or marketing goals."

In an age where clients prioritise quick performance outcomes, Dentsu Lab faces the challenge of selling long-horizon thinking. Wadhwa acknowledged this that clients are performance and output-focused and want the results quickly. “But not 100% of their investment needs to go into that,” he opined. “They're also very clear that they need to build brand equity alongside. So, there is a space for all kinds of creative work, which Dentsu is focusing on.”

The Lab's approach is also designed to overcome the innovation budget paradox. While dentsu’s Innovation Paradox report shows that 72% of CMOs believe there isn’t enough innovation, only 10% allocate budgets for it. Sasaki offered dentsu Lab as a creative consultancy to help CEOs and CMOs identify their "essential issue and inherent uniqueness to create a relevant solution."

Narayan said, "The next best thing is what Dentsu Lab does, which is low-risk rapid prototyping. This means that clients don't have to invest in the laborious and lengthy processes that otherwise would be a sinkhole for money, time and effort."

Wadhwa added, "A reason why 90% of these CMOs haven't earmarked budgets is because most of these innovations were sold through PowerPoints, which can never get them excited. At Dentsu Lab, we are investing in creating solutions and our target audience is these 90% of the CMOs."

(Clockwise): Denstu’s global chief creative officer Yasuharu Sasaki, Dentsu South Asia’s CEO Harsha Razdan, Dentsu’s chief creative officer and chief innovation officer-South Asia Gurbaksh Singh, Amit Wadhwa, CEO, Dentsu Creative and Media Brands, South Asia at Dentsu and Narayan Devanathan, president and chief strategy officer at Dentsu South Asia.

In India, the Lab is targeting sectors like CPG, BFSI, and OTT, where tech-led media transformation is due. Narayan observed that BFSI, while data-driven, is human behaviour at its core: "People are always looking to bridge the gap between their current reality, and what they would like to achieve and money is the means to do that... digital financial literacy is the next frontier."

For CPG, the iterative exploration model fits well. "CPG is more challenging and will get us to do more iterative exploration," Narayan noted, while acknowledging other sectors are "fair game."

Beyond clients, dentsu is actively building a creative R&D ecosystem. "We're planning to partner with an IIT and an upcoming Pune-based university. We are also working with venture capitalists who will either take our innovations to their portfolio companies or to have their portfolio companies collaborate with us to co-create new creative R&D solutions," said Narayan.

The talent strategy also reflects dentsu’s cross-disciplinary ambitions. Sasaki stated, "We look for talent from different industries, and hire scientists or artists, who are different as compared to traditional advertising people." Narayan added that Dentsu India has five IIT Kharagpur graduates, four as interns and the fifth as CEO.

While each lab is tuned to local contexts, knowledge sharing remains a priority. "Technology and R&D is the common language among all Dentsu Labs and we share the latest activity together. So, we can find a different insight and inspiration from each region," Sasaki explained.

For Dentsu Lab Mumbai, this means keeping the innovation cycle moving—from ideation to prototype to scaled solution—without falling into the trap of superficial solutions dressed up as progress. The ambition is clear: to redefine how creativity can be structured, scaled, and made sustainable, both as a commercial imperative and a societal responsibility.

As India’s digital economy expands, the Lab’s success will depend on whether it can deliver not just agile experimentation, but enduring impact. In a world keen on hacks and quick wins, Dentsu Lab Mumbai is betting that real transformation demands patience, creativity, and a willingness to play the long game.