Adele Parody Raises Late Payments Awareness

Adele is a global superstar, and for many fans, her popularity began with early hit “Chasing Pavements.” Eight years after its release, the tune is now being put to an unorthodox use: raising awareness of the small business late payments struggle.

SME accounting software firm Xero and its PR partner Shine have released a parody music video called “Chasing Payments” set to the tune of the Adele classic.

The video, released on Monday (July 11), is paired with a new website, ChasingPayments.com, which enables businesses to thank their corporate clients for paying invoices quickly. According to reports, the vocalist singing “Should I give up, or should I just keep chasing payments?”, as well as the actors featured in the video, are Xero corporate clients.

Straight Up Grizzly produced the video, reports added.

The release of the Adele parody follows the release of data from Xero last week that revealed the burden SMEs face when they are getting paid late by their corporate clients. The majority (52 percent) said they are worried about unpaid invoices. On average, businesses surveyed by Xero spend 1.5 days a month chasing down outstanding payments in London.

Researchers also found that among the top reasons why small businesses are getting paid late is because their corporate clients themselves are waiting to get paid, too. More than one quarter said a lack of consistency in agreed-upon payment terms is also causing late payments.

Further, more than one third said late payments is eating away at corporate productivity, leading not only to a loss of money but also to a backlog of paperwork.

“Brits spend more in online retail per shopper than any other country, but the U.K. has a dismal productivity rating compared to the rest of the G7 nation,” said Xero Cofounder and U.K. Managing Director Gary Turner in a statement. “Our recent research has proved that small businesses are continuing to waste time chasing payments, only adding to the problem with productivity we face in this country.”