NEOM is a new vision of what the future could be. It’s a 26,500KM² region in the Saudi Arabian desert where brilliant minds are collaborating to define, design and build new cities, revolutionise industries and drive innovation that will change the way we live at a time when the world needs fresh thinking and new solutions.

Our challenge was to create a brand film that would raise global awareness and understanding of NEOM’s ambition to become a global enactor of meaningful change. The aim was to achieve this by communicating a compelling mission statement for NEOM and each of its different sectors - engaging hearts and minds with an open invitation to be part of the change.

Since the very beginning, humans have embraced change to make the world better. NEOM is a place designed to concentrate and accelerate the human drive for progress. It’s a blank canvas for a new era of sustainable living. A place Made To Change.

In the film, this was expressed through a series of linked vignettes representing the past and future human benefits of systemic and functional change in unexpected ways. Our point of view journeys seamlessly backwards through these scenes and flips over to emerge in the empty desert representing the blank canvas and limitless opportunity that NEOM offers.

The real brand challenge was profound cynicism amongst our target audience of investors, partners and developers, where not everybody believed in NEOM’s bold vision and nothing tangible had been built.

A plethora of new futuristic cities claim to ‘create the future', but most sit empty. More controversially, NEOM is in Saudi Arabia, somewhere not necessarily perceived as progressive, sustainability-focused, or driving innovation.

Extensive audience, category, and cultural research revealed that the strategic approach shouldn’t just be making a business case for yet another futuristic city, but foremostly, it should position NEOM as a new future for mankind.

Originally a barrier, NEOM’s blank sheet of paper is actually its strength. Elsewhere in the world, our audiences are constrained by legacy infrastructure, technology and regulations. A greenfield site, NEOM is the perfect blank canvas, a living laboratory to drive step-change innovations and for our audiences to leave their mark on the world.

The Made To Change film was launched on 2nd November 2021 and ran for a total of two months up until the new year. Running across fourteen regional markets (KSA, UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain, MENA, Egypt, USA, China, India, Japan, Germany, UK, France & Russia), the film was successful in announcing NEOM and its mission to the world, helping to achieve its ultimate aim of driving awareness and increasing understanding.

The media plan encompassed a broad output that included TV, Cinema and a wide range of digital touchpoints. Therefore, a requirement to produce and craft different formats, specs and edits was factored into the creative from the outset with bespoke builds for prestigious sites such as Times Square developed later into the campaign.

As part of a wider, targeted brand platform campaign, the film achieved 1.17 billion impressions across 14 regional markets.

Overall, the ‘Made To Change’ campaign doubled awareness and understanding of NEOM both globally and in The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in the space of just one year and achieved the highest awareness of all Vision 2030 projects.

It helped to drive record visitor numbers to NEOM.com, contributing to a 727.5% increase and our audience spent over 100K hours on the website.

It shifted the perception of NEOM both in KSA and globally, where the likelihood of people recommending NEOM globally moved up 19 points from a miserable -20 to -1 and global consideration to live and work in NEOM more than doubled.

By the end of 2021, investors & partner leads far exceeded its 45% target, increasing 361% year on year and employee leads increased 444% against a 96% target.