About

February Toronto + Virtual Seasonal
Press Preview 2024

We’re excited to announce we’re hosting our 17th annual multi-client Seasonal Press Preview in Toronto at Erin Tracy Designs‘ stunning jewelry studio on Thursday, February 8th. Located in Liberty Village, we’re booking one-on-one/small group presentations with top-tier editors, producers, and freelancers from 10 am and 2 pm. We will also be extending our reach beyond Toronto, and will finish with 45-minute  Zoom presentation from 3 pm to 4 pm, allowing us to connect with media spread across the United States and Canada.

We have streamlined our client roster to create a cohesive story for our media guests looking for anything related to sustainable lifestyle—from beauty and fashion to health/wellness, fine jewelry, home and beyond. This intimate, one-stop-shop environment allows you to gather story ideas appealing to short-lead Winter/Earth Day/International Women’s Day stories and for those working on longer lead Spring/Summer deadlines.

Our virtual presentation is a fun and highly successful experiential activation that allows us to maintain ‘facetime’ with our media guests who are not located in Toronto. We are also able receive immediate feedback while one of our staff members monitors the chat room throughout the presentation. The silver lining is that we can reach a wider audience compared to having them physically attend events! We have over 100 major media outlets join in for the call, garnering a ton of press for our clients and keeping them fresh on their radar with as close to a ‘hands-on’ way of telling their story and highlighting key products and new launches.  

Check out our Press Room for participating brands and recent releases.


Previous events: 

November New York + Virtual Press Preview 2023

We successfully wrapped-up our short-lead holiday press preview at the stunning @smythtribecany Hotel. We’re filled with gratitude for all our media guests who came out to join us in person and virtually- thank you!

July Virtual Press Preview 2023

This July we opted for a seamless Zoom presentation, allowing all our media guests – from all over the world – to join in from the comfort of their own home. 

We have streamlined our client roster to create a cohesive story for media looking for sustainable lifestyle related stories – from beauty and fashion to health/wellness, fitness and beyond. This intimate, one-stop-shop environment allows for our media guests to gather story ideas appealing to short lead summer/fall stories and long lead holiday gift guides they may be working on. 

April Short-Lead Press Preview 2023

We successfully wrapped-up our Canadian short-lead spring Press Preview at the stunning Socco Living store on Queen Street West. We’re over-the-moon with gratitude for all our media guests who came out to join us, and we want to give a huge round of applause to our incredible client roster who participated.  We even had a handful of our founders on-hand walking media through their story first-hand and got to rub elbows with our respected media guests.

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February Lucid Press Preview 2023 in NYC + virtual  

We closed our 16th annual Seasonal Press Preview in person – finally – on Thursday, February 16th at the stunning Smyth Tribeca in NYC. We set up face-to-face meetings and did one-on-one presentations to major media located in NYC  between 9 am-2 pm and then small group/drop-in presentations from 5-7 pm.  

We streamlined our client roster to create a cohesive story for our media guests looking for anything sustainable lifestyle related – from beauty and fashion to health/wellness, jewelry, fitness and beyond. This intimate, one-stop-shop environment allows media to gather story ideas appealing to short lead stories and Spring/Summer/Mother’s Day/Earth Day gift guide stories our media attendees are working on. 

For media how were not located in NYC and to fold in Canadian media and media spread across the US, we hosted a 45 minute virtual zoom presentation between 3-4pm – as we’ve done for the past three years.  This fun and experiential activation has been highly successful, having virtually done this a handful of times because of the pandemic.  And thankfully, we still maintain ‘facetime’ with our media guests and can receive immediate feedback while one of our staff monitors the chat room throughout the presentation. The silver lining is that we can also reach more media over having them physically come to the events in either city! We have over 100 major media outlets join in for the call, garnering a ton of press for our clients and keeping them fresh in their radar with as close to ‘hands on’ way of telling their story and highlighting key products and new launches.

And as an added bonus: for media that can’t physically attend in our NYC presentations at the hotel, we went direct to  them and brought our clients products with digital look-books to their offices and conducted deskside visits to ensure we got in front as many eyes as possible, and help tell our clients’ stories and showcase their products on their behalf. NYCcollage2023

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July 2022

It’s a wrap! // We just finished hosting our virtual preview at the owner of Lucid’s new Century Home/Airbnb called Brunswick House Picton – located in beautiful Prince Edward County.

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Here is some feedback from our media guests!

Can I just say, the energy you two have during these previews is such a VIBE! Keep up the amazing work 🙂 It’s so much better to see people do what they love and share products they believe in rather than read off of a slide that we are all seeing at the same time. The pandemic has been tough but you two are still keeping Zoom fun! 🙂– Katie Scott, Producer | ET Canada

“Working in lifestyle television, I go to many media previews but am always most impressed on how Lucid is able to position their clients in a  way that really stands out and inspires new ideas. Michelle and Alanna are so friendly and make their previews exciting by pinpointing what makes each of their clients unique, and how they relate to what’s current in the world.  I would walk away with not only knowledge of unique and new products to feature on air, but even pitch ideas for new segment concepts.” – Davida Houston, The Marilyn Denis Show

” I just wanted to follow up and say I was SO impressed by your presentation and cannot wait to experience these small business up close and personal. Thanks again for including me!!” –  Michelle Elvin, Chicago Parent Magazine

” Thanks so much for coordinating! It was so fun and great to see all of the product, even if virtually 🙂 Looking forward to working together in the future!” – Katie Maguire,  Hunker

“I was floored by both the presentation and the box I received in the mail a few days ago. Thank you so much for organizing and introducing me to these products! I wrote up some of them and included some others in product round-ups…” –  Kalina Nedelcheva, Trend Hunter

“I just wanted to say thank you so much for the generous package 🙂 I just received it today and it felt like Christmas! All of the goodies will of course be top of mind for future H&H product round-ups.” –  Victoria Christie, House and Home Magazine
 
 

The old days….when we had physical events….

Now celebrating our 13th year, Lucid Communications’ Seasonal Press Previews have become our most well-attended and high-profile media events hosted Toronto and NYC. We have worked with various hotels in the past including The Hazelton Hotel, Windsor Arms, The Thompson Hotel, The Templar, and The Smyth Hotel. 

Lucid has become partners with AKA Tribeca in NYC for our US preview, and The Ossington House in Toronto for our Canadian preview. However, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, our July 2020 event will be hosted virtually. We will set up a studio space as we have in the past, and will host Zoom meetings with key media throughout the day. We will arrange a videographer to film Lucid staff, who will provide a video pitch on behalf of each client— telling their story, highlighting key products, and introducing new product launches. We will then send out a link to our YouTube channel which will play client videos to major media who could not ‘attend’ the Zoom call. While these circumstances are not ideal, the silver lining is that we will be able to reach more media over having them physically come to the event. We will be sure to follow-up to gage interest and see if media have questions on any of our clients leading into December.

We will pull together a curated media gift bag with our client’s products and will send them to key media in NYC, Toronto and Los Angeles.

The objective of this curated event is to have all of our brands work together to create an intimate, one-stop shopping environment where top-tier media can come and gather great story ideas for end of summer/gift guide season and long lead print publications.    

An original media list is developed each season to include editors, producers and bloggers in the lifestyle, food & beverage, health & nutrition, bridal, baby, retail, design & décor and fashion & beauty beats. A compelling media save-the-date and subsequent invitation are created and distributed in order to book personalized one hour, one-on-one visits throughout the two-day set-up. The experiential activation is designed to engage, create interest, creatively tell each brand’s story, pitch product placement, generate product trial, offer story angles, and pitch spokesperson interviews on behalf of participating brands.

Traditionally, before Covid-19, we would load into the venue on day one and carve out intimate vignettes for each brand to showcase their lines and products. We present on the second day on behalf of our clients, showcasing their products and pitching stories and features to our top-tier media guests. We then host a Cinq à Sept at the end of the day for our influencer guests, health/beauty media, and producers with onsite activations with select clients.

We will be offering a bonus in our NYC presentation: we will take a small collection of products for each client around on desksider meetings the following day for key media that weren’t able to attend the virtual event. This way, we will ensure that we get each brand in front of as many media as possible. 

Below is a list of several media outlets that have attended these exclusive media presentations in the past.

Toronto Presentations:

Canadian Living | Fashion  magazine | Chatelaine | Flare | CityLine | Refinery 29 | Hello! Canada | eTalk | Marilyn Dennis Show | Breakfast TV | Style at Home | Canadian House and Home | Wedding Bells | Toronto Life | Toronto Star | The Kit | Globe and Mail | National Post | Toronto Sun | Today’s Parent | Best Health | Elle Canada | Huffington Post to name a few.

NYC Presentations:

InStyle | Vogue | Harper’s Bazaar | Marie Claire | Cosmo/Seventeen Magazine | Good Housekeeping | Nylon | Time Out NY | Town & Country | ELLE | O Magazine | Family Circle | Well + Good | Teen Vogue | Huffington Post | Vanity Fair | Harpers Bazaar | WWD | Real Simple | Health | Shape | Self | Glamour |  Allure | Refinery 29 | Goop….and many more stylists, freelancers and producers.

Following the presentations, each guest is provided a link to our secure microsite featuring supporting media materials and images. On-site photography at each event captures the activations, and we will share on our social media channels as well.

To ensure the participants’ seasonal stories remain top-of-mind, each journalist will receive a bag of featured products to taste, try, photograph and report on for their upcoming gift guides, features and television shoots.

Given the nature of long-lead appointments and media relations story pitching, placement and planning continues well after the last appointment to coordinate ongoing coverage with both attending and non-attending media. All coverage is tracked and shared on social media to increase exposure.

“Working in lifestyle television, I go to many media previews, but I am always most impressed by how Lucid Communications is able to position their clients in a way that really stands out and inspires new ideas – and in like-minded and cool venues. Michelle and Alanna are so friendly and make their previews exciting by pinpointing what makes each of their clients unique, and how they relate to what’s current in the world. I walk away with not only knowledge of unique and new products to feature on-air, but even pitch ideas for new segment concepts.”   

– Davida Houston, The Marilyn Denis Show

Blogtail Cinq à Sept cocktail party:

At the close of Day 1 appointments, Lucid Communications hosts a Cinq-à-Sept cocktail party for influencers, bloggers and freelance editors and producers. This event includes wine and food pairings, hair and make-up touch-ups, skin consultations, group walk-about presentations, and more.

Click here to review our event deck with pricing

Video footage and past press on events:

Click here for a sizzle reel video from a past event

Profile story from Biz Bash on a past Spring Fever

*  Profile story for past Home for the Holidays

Follow us on Instagram and check out our recent press