Bas Korsten, Global Chief Creative Officer for Innovation EMEA and CCO at VML, is in love and haunted by ideas in the same time. However, he knows when to let go: when he cannot give them the time they need to grow. Bas graduated as a Logistics Engineer but moved into advertising as a copywriter. He became Creative Director of DDB Amsterdam and joined JWT Amsterdam in 2012. With double Grand Prix-winning campaign ‘The Next Rembrandt’, the agency was named Cannes Lions 2016 ‘Innovation Agency of the Year’.
In December 2019, Bas was promoted to Global Chief Creative Officer at Wunderman Thompson. In March 2023, Bas launched ‘The Mammoth Meatball’ for cultured meat company VOW and won multiple Grand Prix. Bas has won 70 Cannes Lions (6 Grand Prix) and invented a new sport: FootGolf.
"I'm in love with ideas and the problem with that is that they haunt you. If there's an idea that needs to see the light of day... I mean, I've been working on the Mammoth Meatball for five or six years, Next Rembrandt also. That's an idea that gets stuck in there and it doesn't let you go", says Bas.
Bas recently came to Romania for the Creativity4Better conference, where he spoke about the unseen process behind big ideas. During a break at the conference, we talked with Bas Korsten about creativity, technology, AI, humor, and aliens.
