This film opens with an older gentleman watching the ending of NEOM's previous advert “Made to Change” playing on his TV. His confused reaction shows that he’s still not sure what NEOM is.

This first scene serves as a kick-off for a fast-paced, diverse sequence that cuts between the conversations of people from all around the world, speaking different languages, asking “What is NEOM?”, expressing half-truths and having misconceptions about it.

From name mispronunciations to unfounded gossip to excitedly reported facts, this film depicts a global conversation where dialogue in each scene follows on from the previous. It culminates with a declaration from a university student that NEOM is a place that will change the way we live on this planet, before ending on a simple call to action for the viewer: To get the facts, search "what is NEOM"

NEOM was announced in 2017 and widely reported on as a “Smart City”. With many cities, regions and sectors planned in NEOM, this is only part of the picture. Announcements of The LINE, Oxagon, Trojena and Sindalah, added to the confusion with many construing NEOM and The LINE as the same thing.

In 2021 NEOM launched “Made to Change” which raised awareness by 20 NPS points, but research in 2022 showed understanding was becoming a bigger challenge with so many awe-inspiring and ambitious chapters being added to the NEOM story.

All these announcements and launches created a new objective for the Masterbrand; A growing need for our B2B and B2C target audiences to clearly understand what NEOM is and that it is a credible opportunity.

We need to bring clarity to NEOM as it grows in ambition and scale.

We open in a living room, on the close-up of a TV playing the end of the Made to Change NEOM advert from 2021. The screen shows the brand logo and tagline; from the TV speakers, we hear a little girl’s VO saying: “MADE TO CHANGE”.

We reverse the shot to see a confused-looking African American grandpa watching the TV. He’s sitting on a sofa and squinting at the TV as he repeats, mispronouncing the brand’s name:

AMERICAN GRANDPA, VO AND SUBS: Nome?

His wife joins him and starts correcting him with a friendly but slightly know-it-all attitude, like she’s had to clarify things for him their entire relationship:

AMERICAN GRANDMA, VO AND SUBS: No, Mo, it is…

We cut to a dentist’s studio in Japan where a dentist is working on a patient. The patient’s mouth is stuffed; nevertheless, she repeats decisively, although quite unintelligibly:

JAPANESE PATIENT, VO AND SUBS: NEOM! NEOM!

We cut to a little Saudi girl in a stylish living room. We see her mum in the background, but it’s the girl we’re focused on. She’s colouring while watching TV and, pointing at the screen, she exclaims:

SAUDI GIRL, VO AND SUBS: Nemo!

We cut to an Indian yogi sitting on a pier in the late afternoon. He’s practicing meditation with some students. He is sounding out the word NEOM emphasising the second half and making it sound like an ‘ohm’. The students echo him.

INDIAN YOGI, VO AND SUBS: NEOOOMM…

STUDENTS, VO AND SUBS: NEOMMMMM…

We cut to see an Irishman on a busy London tube, asking quite annoyedly to another passenger:

ANNOYED IRISHMAN, VO AND SUBS: What did you say to me?

Back in the American living room, we see Grandma correcting her husband again. He seems a bit airy and oblivious, but the dynamic is adorable.

AMERICAN GRANDMA, VO AND SUBS: It’s NEOM.

AMERICAN GRANDPA, VO AND SUBS: What’s NEOM?

We cut to see two men walking around a museum. They have an intellectual air; they might be two architects. One of them says, in French:

FRENCH ARCHITECT 1, VO: C'est un changement dans le paradigme civilisationnel enraciné dans l'urbanisme vertical.

SUBS: It’s a shift in the civilizational paradigm rooted in vertical urbanism.

We cut to a fancy restaurant in Spain; a woman looks up from her lunch, slightly perplexed and gestures with her fork at her husband who is sitting across from her. In Spanish, she asks:

SPANISH LADY, VO: ¿Y eso qué significa exactamente?

SUBS: And what does that mean exactly?

We see a family at the top of an observation tower in Riyad; they look like tourists. The mum asks, with a South African accent:

SOUTH AFRICAN MUM, VO AND SUBS: Does it mean we’ll be able to see it from here?

We cut to two astronauts on a spacewalk fixing the ISS. Behind them, we can see the Earth, specifically Saudi Arabia. They speak English to each other, but with different accents:

ASTRONAUT 1, VO AND SUBS: See what from here?

ASTRONAUT 2, VO AND SUBS: There, in that corner of Saudi Arabia… NEOM!

We see two ladies casually walking through a street market in Mexico City. One talks to the other in Spanish:

MEXICAN MARKET SHOPPER, VO: Bueno, pero ¿qué es NEOM?

SUBS: Ok, but what is NEOM?

We cut to two kids building sandcastles on a Greek beach. They both built ambitious-looking sandcastles with quite unusual shapes and are now squabbling heatedly in Greek:

GREEK KID 1, VO: Αυτή είναι η NEOM!

GREEK KID 2, VO: Όχι, αυτή είναι η NEOM!

SUBS: This is NEOM!

SUBS: No, this is NEOM!

We see a Mexican actor playing a character in a Western movie. He’s talking passionately to the other actor, more invested in their conversation than in the scene he’s supposed to be acting in. The crew calls his attention to the scene. Everyone speaks in English.

MEXICAN ACTOR, VO AND SUBS: No man, it’s an amazing region where…

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR, VO AND SUBS: Action!

MEXICAN ACTOR, VO AND SUBS: Wait! What’s the line?

We see the director is visibly annoyed. We then cut to see two sporty LA women jogging:

LA WOMAN 1, VO AND SUBS: I think THE LINE is part of that NEOM thing.

LA WOMAN 2, VO AND SUBS: Oh, I thought it was gonna be an octagon.

We cut to a gorgeous British private school courtyard. A group of school boys are attempting to strike up a conversation with some girls.

BRITISH BOY, VO AND SUBS: Hey, what’re you girls talking about?

BRITISH GIRLS, VO AND SUBS: NEOM! Duh!

The sound ”duh” from the girls’ voices overlaps with the introductory notes of a piano version of Beethoven’s 5th Symphony. As we hear this sound transition, we cut to see the theatre where the piano concert is taking place.

SUBS ON THE PIANO: Duh duh duh DUUHHH 🎶

In the audience, one man asks his wife in Chinese, whispering:

CHINESE MAN, VO: NEOM 是什么？

SUBS: What is NEOM?

Another man sitting nearby shushes him, annoyed.

We cut to see different parts of the world and hear vague responses that still don’t paint a clear picture of what NEOM is exactly. A gondolier in Venice sings:

ITALIAN GONDOLIER, VO: Un posto con tante isole.

SUBS: A place with many islands.

We see a couple on the gondola looking at each other, confused. Then, we cut back to our French guys in the museum. The second one says:

FRENCH ARCHITECT 2, VO: Un endroit qui sera alimenté par de l'énergie renouvelable.

SUBS: A place that’ll run on renewable energy.

We see a pair of Inuit ice fishers. As one says something, the other shivers jokingly in response:

INUIT FISHER 1, VO AND SUBS: A place that’s colder than the rest of the Arabian Gulf!

INUIT FISHER 2, VO AND SUBS: BRRR…

We snap out of this sequence due to the voice of an exasperated New York taxi driver who doesn’t have time to beat around the bush. He’s asking the passenger impatiently:

NY TAXI DRIVER, VO AND SUBS: Can I just get a simple answer? What is NEOM?

We see two Indian businessmen playing golf while chatting:

INDIAN GOLFER 1, VO AND SUBS: It’s a revolution in urban architecture!

The other golfer whispers to his caddie, looking for answers:

INDIAN GOLFER 2, VO AND SUBS: Are you following any of this?

We cut to see two businessmen chatting as they share a ride in the elevator. They speak in English to each other, but with different accents:

BUSINESSMAN 1, VO AND SUBS: We have been following it for a while. I think we're gonna invest…

BUSINESSMAN 2, VO AND SUBS: What are you investing in?

We cut to a group of Swiss micro investors in their modern office. One tells another, in Swiss German:

SWISS INVESTOR, VO: In die Zukunft! Der menschliche Fortschritt!

SUBS: In the future! Human progress!

We quickly cut between the faces of some of the confused people we‘ve seen so far; they look as if they’ve all simultaneously figured out what NEOM is.

We see two Latino ladies walking on a sidewalk, chatting.

LATINO GIRL 1, VO AND SUBS: Yeah, it’s nuts! A city with no cars.

A young guy honks his car’s horn to get their attention. The second girl rolls her eyes and turns to the other, saying:

LATINO GIRL 2, VO AND SUBS: Ugh. I can’t…

We see two Canadian skier bros making snow angels and looking at the sky as one says:

CANADIAN SKIER, VO AND SUBS: …wait! Ski slopes in the desert?

His friend nods with a big grin.

CANADIAN SKIER, VO AND SUBS: Dude, that’s so sick!

We see a Saudi surgeon in the middle of an operation talking to the other doctors in the room:

SAUDI DOCTOR, VO: ...العكس تماماً... بيكون فيه طب وقائي

SUBS: Quite the opposite, actually. There will be preventative healthcare…

We see a quick cutting sequence of more people rapidly rattling off the most impressive facts about NEOM. We start with a Korean woman on a train, talking to the person next to her:

KOREAN WOMAN, VO: 인지 기술이 있는 곳…

SUBS: a place with cognitive technology…

We see two Nigerian men running on treadmills in the gym. One says:

NIGERIAN MAN, VO AND SUBS: the most walkable cities…

We see a Saudi family sitting around a fire outdoors. The teenage son speaks excitedly:

SAUDI SON, VO: ...مساحتها نفس مساحة بلجيكا... لكن 95 بالمية من أراضيها بتكون طبيعة محمية

SUBS: and it’s almost the size of Belgium, but 95% of the land will be preserved for nature.

We cut back to the Swiss micro investors:

SWISS INVESTOR, VO: Es ist wie ein Entwurf für die Zivilisation.

SUBS: It’s like a blueprint for civilization.

We finally cut to see a 20 y.o. Scandinavian girl talking to camera in English. She’s standing in what looks like the outdoor space of a college.

SCANDINAVIAN STUDENT, VO AND SUBS: Call it what you want, but it’s a place that’s gonna change the way we live on this planet.

This is a mic drop moment; we cut away to different quick portraits of the people we’ve seen from around the world. Then, we cut to the supers, with the question “what is NEOM” being typed out on a Google search bar:

SUPERS: To get the facts, search “what is NEOM”

SUPERS: The lock-up of NEOM’s logo and the “MADE TO CHANGE” line appears and animates on screen.

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