Old phones replace lifafas in Cashify’ ‘Phone Wala Shagun’ campaign

New Delhi: Cashify has rolled out a new digital campaign, ‘Phone Wala Shagun’, centred around reframing the perception of old smartphones as assets rather than clutter. 

The e-commerce platform for used smartphones uses a wedding scenario to draw attention to the untapped value of idle devices in Indian households.

The film depicts a fictional wedding in which typical cash gestures are replaced with old mobile phones, from the groom wearing a garland of used phones to guests gifting handsets instead of envelopes. The visual metaphor is intended to draw parallels between cash and old devices, which often go unused despite upgrade potential.

Talking about the campaign, Nakul Kumar, Co-founder and CMO of Cashify, said, “India doesn’t have a resale problem. It has a mindset problem. People don’t think of old phones as assets. With this campaign, we’re not just flipping a cultural tradition, we’re reframing how people see value. Our long-term vision is to embed resale into everyday decision-making. Resale shouldn’t be reactive, it should be reflexive. A default part of the digital ownership journey. This campaign is the first step in making that shift mainstream.”

According to the company, over 300 million smartphone users in India are eligible for upgrades annually, yet many old devices are either stored away or forgotten. The campaign is an attempt to address this behavioural inertia, encouraging users to consider resale as an active and conscious decision, particularly during high-upgrade seasons such as festivals.

To develop the narrative, Cashify collaborated with Dhindora Media, a content studio focused on youth-oriented storytelling. The studio helped shape the concept with a mix of cultural cues and humour.

Jai Sahni of Dhindora Media said, “Cracking this idea was no easy feat. Phone resale is a tricky category. It doesn’t naturally lend itself to everyday, relatable moments. We kept digging until a simple, quirky thought clicked: weddings are full of cash exchanges... what if, instead of cash, people started gifting their old phones? That became the spark for this film. It was a joy collaborating with the team at Cashify to bring this idea to life, right from scripting to execution. Always exciting when a brand is willing to have fun while solving a real problem.”

The campaign follows earlier content-led initiatives from the brand, such as ‘Lie Hard’, and is expected to be part of a wider strategy through 2025. ‘Phone Wala Shagun’ is currently live across Instagram, YouTube Shorts, and Meta platforms.

Watch the campaign film: