What will happen to creative ideas as we hurtle into big data?

Will we see creative ideas diminish as more and more data is collected about 'us', thus resulting in marketing and advertising that is geared to our preferences based on the data available about us? [from Quora]

Felix Velarde:

Creativity is solving problems, not coming up with cute ideas.

The next generation of CRM (which is arguably where all marketing is headed, partly because of the avilabilty of what you call Big data) is already centring around user-segmented brand experiences.

The best creative ideas therefore enable splintered expression, based on the recipient/electee's understanding of and motivations in relation to the brand. Great creative can be repurposed by the individual based on her own psychology - and therefore demands both insight and flexibility, because in essence it devolves responsibility for an imagination to the consumer rather than the marketing itself.

I've been in digital marketing for 17 years, eCRM for nine, and am heavily involved in the customer insight-based creative industry, and personally I think the most exciting times, and the most creatively challenging times, are still ahead of us.

Steve Jobs

I started a publishing company in 1992 because I discovered I could start something myself because of the Macintosh.

I started one of the first web design agencies in 1994 because I was inspired by a vision of what could be done with an Apple Mac. I spent a fortnight getting my Mac online, not my first frustration with them, nor my last, but the sense of achievement, of empowerment, when I'd done it was incredible. I helped create the multimedia programme and helped write the code that made an MPEG card work in a Mac for the first time in the UK, for the kiosks for a British Design & Art Directors Club (D&AD) Festival of Excellence. I crashed every Quadra I ever drove.

I was a fanatic. As a multimedia entrepreneur, Mac gave me the power to realise and evangelise a changing media world. Steve's vision was echoed by many, many people, and standing on the shoulders of this giant his machines were used to express the new media reality.

Many of us who were at the vanguard of digital media would not be where we are today were it not for this one visionary man. Thank you Steve, the world is a richer place because of you, and a poorer one without you.

Felix Velarde
London