During a glamorous event which attracted leading German celebrities, the first outlet of a new marketing programme, the Lancia Lifestyle Lounge, was inaugurated in Friedrichstrasse in Berlin.

During a glamorous event which attracted many leading German celebrities, the first outlet of a bold new marketing programme, the Lancia Lifestyle Lounge, was inaugurated in Friedrichstrasse in centre of the capital city, Berlin.

The Lancia Lifestyle Lounge is a new marketing concept, that builds further on the Lancia Café theme, and is one that the brand now plans to roll out across major European cities, an initiative that seeks to offer the casual visitor a chance to imbue themselves in the brand's core values of Italian fashion, style and elegance.

With a comfortable lounge and bar area the prospective customer will be able to discover Lancia's model range through actually static examples as well as staff on hand and aids such as touch screens that will allow models to be individually configurated.

The Berlin Lancia Lifestyle Lounge is the first one to be opened and the inauguration night on 1st February was headlined by a star performer, the German singer Yvonne Catterfeld. More than 200 guests attended, including young designers from the famous Best-Sabel school in the city. Also entertaining the guests was Italo-German singer/songwriter Nevio who shot to fame as a contestant on Deutschland sucht den Superstar (the German version of Pop Idol), while the evening's programme was wrapped up by the Pop and House music of CJ Stone, a DJ who is currently very much in vogue on the Berlin music scene. In attendance was Lancia CEO Olivier François.

The Lancia Lifestyle Lounge is seen as an important new way to connect the public with Lancia's products, especially with the arrival of the new Delta model due in the second half of the year. Closely based on the 'Delta HPE' concept car, this new model will straddle C/D segments and be presented in final production form at next month's Geneva Motor Show.

The Lounge concept will work on two levels. The customer can be exposed to the cars in the range, create a specially-tailored model with the Area Color Configurator, negotiate a purchase, or buy merchandise from the Lancia Boutique; while within the plush 350 m2 complex they can also relax in the luxurious cafe area which is managed by Espressamente Illy, the 130 outlet group which is spread over 22 countries on 5 continents and that seeks to bring the Italian 'cafe culture exprience' to new overseas markets. Here visitors to the Lounge area can choose from a range of Italian gastronomic delights.