LazyPay's new ad makes a Sacred Games reference...

LazyPay, PayU India’s consumer lending platform and a 'Pay Later' option, has launched a digital campaign titled ‘LazyPay Hai Toh Life Sorted Hai’. The campaign's objective is to connect with today’s consumers, and the ad contains use-cases to highlight the convenience that LazyPay offers across categories. A press release states that the digital campaign parades top characters inspired by India’s most popular web series to emphasise the convenience of availing credit from LazyPay with flexible payment options. LazyPay has a one-click credit access offering credit across categories like travel, food and online shopping, along with 15 days for repayment.

Speaking about the campaign, Pallav Jain, country head at PayU Finance, said, “The campaign captures the true essence of a shopping experience combined with alternative credit that’s just a click away. It depicts the everyday scenarios which most of us and especially millennials go through, be it that month-end salary crunch or struggle in getting a personal loan for their trip they had planned with friends.”

Rayomand J Patell feels that while the ad itself draws on popular culture, he's unsure if it takes the reference further than that. He adds that a spoof or a parody should add something back if it seeks to reference something and that he was unsure why the brand had selected Sacred Games, nearly four months after its second season released in August 2019.

The ad treads a zone between long format (two minutes or more) and a thumbstopper (10 seconds or less) and as far as duration goes, Patell mentions that he's not a big fan of labels. "So long as it communicates what it has to, duration doesn’t matter. I felt the treatment could have been tighter and faster. Impact-wise, I feel I may watch the ad, but maybe not really download the app. Something about the name of the app versus the execution style of the commercial seems to be at odds. I watched it a few times but didn’t get a compelling reason to download the app right away," he concludes.

In the fintech space in India, LazyPay competes with 'Pay Later' offerings from banks as well as from independent companies. That means LazyPay competes with an ICICI Bank's 'Pay Later' feature as well as with a Razorpay and a Simpl. An Economic Times report estimates that the fintech space in India is going to touch $31 billion. Of course, this is not the first time that a brand has used references to the Netflix show Sacred Games in their ads...