In 2021, Little Simz released Sometimes I Might Be Introvert, an album already being hailed as one of the most exciting records of modern times. Keen to further explore one of the more personal tracks, I Love You, I Hate You, Simz opened up a conversation with WePresent, the digital arts platform of WeTransfer, and together they began work on a cinematic collaboration to symbiotically accompany the track.

The brief was to create a short piece of content that would put WePresent and therefore WeTransfer in front of Little Simz’s following as she breaks onto the global stage, while giving her a platform as a multifaceted artist to express herself in a new medium, and by proxy promoting her new album, Sometimes I Might Be Introvert.

To create the debut film of acclaimed British artist and actor Simbiatu Ajikawo aka Little Simz -- an original narrative short film called I Love You, I Hate You. The film focuses on repressed memories between the artist and her father. In addition to starring in the film herself, I Love You, I Hate You’s story was created by Little Simz and is a deep dive into a song of the same title from her critically-lauded album, Sometimes I Might Be Introvert.

The short narrative film was released alongside Simz’s new album Sometimes I Might Be Introvert as a way for the artist’s community to engage with her in a new way. For WeTransfer, it was about enabling the artist’s creative vision, giving Simz the opportunity to explore a new medium, “I’ve written my whole life and I’d say I’m a confident storyteller, but I’ve obviously never done this medium before.” This in turn would help to generate brand awareness and positive sentiment for WeTransfer from Little Simz’s growing, global following, at a peak time in her career marked by her breakthrough in the United States - a key growth market for WeTransfer in terms of brand awareness. The release of the film happened the same month as her appearance on mainstream talk shows such as Jimmy Fallon.

Filmed during the pandemic over several weeks in August 2021 in Kent in the UK, the film was released on WePresent and YouTube on 17th November 2021. This came at the tail end of the campaign surrounding Little Simz critically-lauded album released on 21 April 2021, that catapulted her to the global stage in western pop culture.

The film is still available to watch online on Little Simz’s YouTube channel. It was embedded and distributed on WePresent the day of launch, with a dedicated editorial feature on the site, WeTransfer media inventory on wetransfer.com and social media posts on Simz and WePresent social media channels to drive traffic to the film.

The film has been viewed 747,000 times on YouTube.

The promotional campaign was supported by an in person screening and live Q&A with Simz herself at Braindead Studios in Los Angeles attended by over 150 industry VIPs from the worlds of music, media and entertainment. New to the US market, this presented an opportunity for Simz to engage with the local film and entertainment audience. WeTransfer benefited from the brand association to the creative community who predominantly make up the brand’s user base.