Edmond Huot - Partner and Chief Creative Officer, Forward Media

So that brings up kind of a follow-on question or kind of a deeper one and a follow-up that I really want to ask.

Do liveries really matter? And the follow-up is, why did Larry Ellison think so or does Larry Ellison think so? Because clearly, to your point about private equity and the money, when you get to the true money backing these, they care greatly about it.

Why is that? What are they seeing? In the livery? Well, I just mean like in the brand, but why was Larry Ellison worth what he is? And if you put an hourly figure to his time, it's going to be something silly.

Oh, I know.

Why was he spending time, so much attention on delivery for the airline that you were working with?

I think for a person like Larry Ellison, you know, everything gets very personal to him.

I mean, again, I'm a man, so I kind of know this, but my take on how I interacted with him and what I saw was that this was a personal project for him, and therefore the livery had to exude all aspects of his personal convictions.

And I would almost say that the end result is less indicative of all of this than the process.

It was all the time and effort in discussing and imagining and planning that I think was fed him.

You know, then you end up with what you end up

with.

And then it's like everything else.

Like, okay, I'm going to do something else.

It was the journey, you know.

And I say that with respect.

And I see our clients who aren't billionaires anymore.

engaging in the journey as well, and it's important.

And then you end up with the livery.

And then everyone's going to have an opinion.

As you know, liveries are giant dartboards, and everyone has an opinion on livery.

And so that's really kind of why I like doing it, because it's topical, it indexes very high with average people versus projects where I work with clients in different categories where it's super dry.

Nobody cares, you know, nobody has an opinion and I want to talk about it.

And you're like, I don't really, but you bring an airline into the discussion and everybody agrees.

you know, as a, but it's usually like, oh, I flew last week and it was horrible.

And, you know, it's like, well, I didn't design that experience.

So that brings up kind of a follow-on question or kind of a deeper one and a follow-up that I really want to ask.

Do liveries really matter? And the follow-up is, why did Larry Ellison think so or does Larry Ellison think so? Because clearly, to your point about private equity and the money, when you get to the true money backing these, they care greatly about it.

Why is that? What are they seeing? In the livery? Well, I just mean like in the brand, but why was Larry Ellison worth what he is? And if you put an hourly figure to his time, it's going to be something silly.

Oh, I know.

Why was he spending time, so much attention on delivery for the airline that you were working with?

I think for a person like Larry Ellison, you know, everything gets very personal to him.

I mean, again, I'm a man, so I kind of know this, but my take on how I interacted with him and what I saw was that this was a personal project for him, and therefore the livery had to exude all aspects of his personal convictions.

And I would almost say that the end result is less indicative of all of this than the process.

It was all the time and effort in discussing and imagining and planning that I think was fed him.

You know, then you end up with what you end up

with.

And then it's like everything else.

Like, okay, I'm going to do something else.

It was the journey, you know.

And I say that with respect.

And I see our clients who aren't billionaires anymore.

engaging in the journey as well, and it's important.

And then you end up with the livery.

And then everyone's going to have an opinion.

As you know, liveries are giant dartboards, and everyone has an opinion on livery.

And so that's really kind of why I like doing it, because it's topical, it indexes very high with average people versus projects where I work with clients in different categories where it's super dry.

Nobody cares, you know, nobody has an opinion and I want to talk about it.

And you're like, I don't really, but you bring an airline into the discussion and everybody agrees.

you know, as a, but it's usually like, oh, I flew last week and it was horrible.

And, you know, it's like, well, I didn't design that experience.