Here at Powwownow, we don’t mind a bit of honest competition. But recent advertising from the people at Flybe.com seemed a little less than truthful. So we felt we ought to take a little direct action with our own ad, published today in the London Metro.

OK, so it’s a little cheeky of us to take their ad and throw it back at them. But we felt there was something important missing in their claim that face to face meetings – and particularly face-to-face meetings that involve air travel – are ‘better’ than conference calling.

It’s not just that they were knocking our business, or that many of their statistics were questionable (more about that in a moment). It’s that they seem to think that the only cost of air travel is financial.

We don’t agree.

As you and I well know, air travel is highly hazardous to the environment. When the rest of the world is trying to do what they can to minimize the impact of business activities on the environment, Flybe are cheerfully endorsing the eco-unfriendly option. But the thing that gets us is that they don’t even acknowledge this, thereby suggesting that businesses see the monetary price of a ticket as the only factor here. If I was one of their customers, I’d be insulted.

Anyone who has read our blogs here will know that we are proud of our green credentials, and that we are not leaping onto a bandwagon for commercial reasons. Many of our customers are small, cost-conscious businesses who know all about keeping outgoings to a minimum. But they are also aware of their wider responsibilities, and are proud to ‘do their bit’ for the environment. So suggesting they don’t care is really not fair.

But what about the ‘facts and figures’ quoted by Flybe?

They say, for example, that face-to-face meetings will turn 40% of potential customers into customers, compared with only 16% without face-to-face contact. But they fail to mention that this figure comes from a non-peer-reviewed US study sponsored by two industry groups, the US Travel Association and the Destination and Travel Foundation. The latter’s website says it exists to “bolster the destination marketing profession and travel industry”. Come on guys.

Flybe go on to say on their website that conference calls simply don’t win business. Well, the fact is that you can meet far more often if you only need to pick up the phone – and you don’t need a researcher to tell you that the more often you meet, the better your relationships. And don’t forget that your environmental credentials are increasingly requested in new business tender documents. Your ecological attitude clearly matters – not just to the planet, but also to your attractiveness as a business. Since when did a poor environmental record help you win business?

And we’re not the only ones picking up on this: see also this excellent piece from the Guardian.

Horses for courses

But let’s be reasonable for a moment. Sometimes, face-to-face is best – of course it is. And sometimes – if Flybe were big enough to admit it – they would agree that it’s really not worth travelling when you can have a perfectly good meeting over the phone. The thing is that, every time you avoid travelling, you don’t just save a stack of money, you can also pat yourself on the back for doing the right thing by the planet.

We just felt we needed to put the record straight. For the sake of the truth, for the sake of all businesses with a conscience – and of course for the sake of having a bit of fun by making a parody of their ad for millions of commuters to see this morning.

PS: If you want to avoid air travel, why not register for free and start enjoying our free conference calling service yourself?