From whimsy to brief: Meet Dentsu Lab

When Japan’s popular cross-dressing television host Matsuko Deluxe wanted to promote himself, his team approached Japanese advertising group Dentsu for help; it decided to build him a life-size android clone.

Matsuko-roid resembled its human inspiration and not only hosted the chat show but also endorsed a few brands, including quick-service restaurant KFC and Recruit, an HR tech company. For those raised on a diet of manga, such technology-led creative solutions seem quintessentially Japanese.

Yasuharu Sasaki, now global chief creative officer of dentsu, was part of the team that built Matsuko-roid. He is also the founder of Dentsu Lab Tokyo, the formal home for such outlandish ideas. Just ask Matsuko-roid.

Last month, after a delay of a couple of years, Sasaki and the leadership of dentsu India launched Dentsu Lab in Mumbai. He says India is the best place for the lab, given its engineering and digital prowess coupled with its rich culture.

Such statements may sound like the usual flattery from visiting executives. Yet one need only look at Dentsu Creative India’s chief innovation officer, Gurbaksh Singh. A commerce graduate with an MBA, Singh led the technology side of The Unfiltered History Tour, a project that allowed visitors to the British Museum to scan certain objects and hear their real histories rather than the official British narrative.

The work was the most awarded entry at Cannes Lions 2022 and brought Dentsu Creative India its first Agency of the Year Lion.

Technology? Check. Solving a problem? Check. Correcting the historical record on stolen artefacts? Another check. It fits neatly with Sasaki’s vision for Dentsu Lab: “Solve business issue and societal issue using creativity.”

At the launch, several examples were shared with current and prospective clients. DSP Mutual Fund’s Garuda Rakshak was a drone resembling the king of birds from Hindu theology, designed to locate lost children at large religious gatherings. First introduced during the 2025 Kumbh Mela, it will next be deployed at the Ujjain and Nasik Mahakumbh.

Another example was Motorola’s Deep Connect, which allowed miners to stay in touch with their families by making and receiving calls through their walkie-talkies.

Interestingly, these projects were originally credited to Dentsu Creative but are now part of Dentsu Lab India’s portfolio. When asked about the shift, Amita Wadhwa, chief executive of Dentsu Creative and media brands, South Asia, dentsu, quipped: “Think of them as stealth work for Dentsu Lab.”

Much of the work highlighted at the launch addressed societal issues more than commercial challenges. Sasaki, speaking before the event, offered an explanation: “One of the easiest ways for people to love and connect with the brand is how the brand solves societal challenges.”

He points to Japanese snack brand Glico and its efforts to make children enjoy coding. Arrange the brand’s snacks in certain sequences and advanced image-recognition software transforms them into commands for a game character to overcome obstacles.

Is there, however, too much technology in the ad world? WPP’s recent appointment of Microsoft leader Cindy Rose as its chief executive seemed like another nail in the coffin for traditional advertising.

Wadhwa disagrees. “I think this is the most exciting phase of advertising,” he says, adding that one can either fear the changes or embrace them. “If we adapt and change, we will be as important as one can be.”

Dentsu Lab will also have offices in Delhi and Bangalore, adding to its presence in the UK, Netherlands and Poland. Sasaki says the Indian operations will differ because human insight into culture is “very different” here, making Dentsu Lab a “different innovation” in the country.

He acknowledges the challenge of engaging with India’s cultural diversity, which can be both a boon and a bane. His solution is to create personalised experiences: “It's not easy to do that in advertising, but technology can make it possible.”

The route to such personalised, culture-setting solutions starts with clients. Dentsu Lab is targeting both existing and new ones. “They are not mutually exclusive solutions for us,” says Narayan Devanathan, president and chief strategy officer for Dentsu South Asia.

It is easier to approach existing clients, he says, not only because they are more receptive but also because “we understand their business better being their partners over the long term.”

According to Devanathan, clients have been and will be receptive to Dentsu Lab’s model because it offers “rapid prototyping, low risk, and doesn’t cost much.” Add the lure of custom solutions, and the pitch becomes more persuasive.

As for how the lab will measure success a year from now, Wadhwa sums it up: “If we would have truly moved our clients to say, ‘I want to do this,’ I think we would have done our job.”