• by Gavin O'Malley , Staff Writer @mp_gavin, February 22, 2012

A self-professed “outsider” at OMMA Data, Tom Morton, Chief Strategy Officer at Euro RSCG New York says the industry is now divided into two groups: poets and quants. “I’m a poet,” says Morgan, and, alas, “it’s an increasingly quant world.” Thankfully, however, even poets are now realizing the potential of big data to open up and transform the industry, according to Mogran -- And that's a good thing because, “There is absolutely no opt-out of big data,” he insists. “It is turning into the engine that drives the industry.”

That doesn’t mean, however, that there isn’t a place for poets in the new ad business. On the contrary, “The brand needs a voice as well as a price,” and “consumers needs to be captivated as well as targeted,” Morton says -- For that, he believes, poets remain vital.

Meanwhile, there’s ever more opportunity for truly open-minded poets to make magic with, yes, data. It’s actually “raw material for creativity,” Morgan says of data. Going forward, as the industry wallows deeper and deeper in numbers, there exists “a gap for the poets of the world to fill ... Big data still needs big interpreters.”

Asked by an OMMA conference attendee who should sit at the head of the table -- poets or quants -- Morgan said it didn’t matter. “What’s most important is the ability to bridge” the gap. That, he said, is the very definition of creativity.