FOR CIC — Tenant Testimonials

Cambridge Innovation Center (CIC) is a high-touch, serviced co-working space that occupied one floor in one building near MIT when CIC co-founder Tim Rowe asked whether I'd make CIC marketing videos in exchange for a space of my own at CIC. I said yes, moved in, and created three videos:

• Tenant Testimonials →
• The Story and the Team
• The Space

The following year, the number CIC tenants quadrupled.

The first two videos were in a traditional style that was part of the plan but "The Space" was my improvised first foray into a more atmospheric style. It drew quite a bit of attention and attracted other clients wanting similar work, such as Ambient Devices and St. George's.

Making this video, I stumbled on an interesting principle: Viewers' tolerance of a marketing video's duration increases in proportion to the importance of the decision they're making. 

I interviewed dozens of CIC tenants about why they chose to locate there and edited the resulting seven hours of footage down to 14 minutes, which sounded long, superficially. But for entrepreneurs deciding where to base their startups, it wasn't, because it was such a big decision to them, and they craved the information when making such a major decision. 

2003