Culture and cars: Why Cupra hosted an exclusive Ministry of Sound event in Canberra for its new electric car, the Born

It sounds like something fitting of a fashion brand, or perhaps even a subtitle of a book or play. It conjures ideas of freedom and belonging, exclusivity and connection, and perhaps just a little bit wild.

What the phrase doesn't immediately conjure is a car brand. And yet that is what is printed on the interior of the box given to every Cupra owner. Its contents? An exclusive carbon fibre bracelet and key kit. Presumably so they can identify their tribes while they're away from their vehicles.

The Spanish brand - which launched its new electric vehicle, the Cupra Born in Canberra last month - is just as much about promoting a lifestyle as it is about cars. And not just any car. A car that promotes itself as being "not for everyone".

In other words, it's a car that's exclusive, simply by whether or not you like what it has on offer, for the price it is going for.

Take the launch for example. It was hosted at Saint Malo - Canberra's only Spanish restaurant - rather than a showroom in Sydney somewhere. Influencers and media were treated to a Spanish lunch, while a red Cupra Born - with its signature copper trim - sat in the picturesque Mediterranean-style courtyard.

The idea was to capture a little bit of Barcelona - the city where Cupra is based - and bring it to Canberra. Why Canberra? Because it's a city that Cupra considers to be progressive when it comes to electric vehicles.

The long lunch was then backed up with an invite-only Ministry of Sound event that night at the National Arboretum. The iconic dance music brand is just one of the many non-car related companies Cupra has aligned itself with.

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But according to Cupra's head of marketing, Sergio Ripolles, it's not just about finding popular brands that want to work with a car company. It's a matter of finding one that aligns with them on a design level, but also an innovation level.

"Cupra, being a brand that was born only five years ago, is a brand that wants to do something different in its sector, that wants to stand out," he says.

"So when we look at collaborations we usually develop or co-create capsules that combined both our design departments so that we can come up with something special for both customers."

This crossover with arts, culture and cars is not a new one.

In 1925, artist Sonia Delaunay famously painted a Citroen B12 in coloured rectangles and created matching clothing for two models to wear beside it. She then repeated the process on a Matra 530 in 1968.

A little closer to home, Frenchman Jean Dulon brought a Renault Twingo to Australia in 1993 to not only travel the country but to do so with traditional Indigenous artwork painted on the car's sides thanks to John Moriarty, the founder of Balanrinji Arts. It clocked up 25,000 kilometres, driving through the outback, before returning to France, where it became a celebrity after Dulon drove it around Paris and Nice. It even reportedly inspired an ad campaign where the tagline was "The Twingo is like a boomerang. No matter how far you send it, it keeps coming back."

Since 2016, however, it has been housed in the National Museum of Australia, where it is on display in the Talking Blak to History exhibition.

Sure, the Cupra Born isn't covered in art - although some would argue that car design is an art in itself.

But it's still a branding exercise. One that they're hoping to translate in Australia.

"The way that we wanted to conquer Australian customers was through emotions," Ripolles says.

"So rational arguments wouldn't work for us ... this is not a car to move from point A to B. It is actually to live these driving experiences.

"So doing all these collaborations around the Cupra, with all the lifestyle collaborations, through merchandise, through sports, through music, is a way of touching these customers' feelings, associating ourselves with the taste and the things that they like ... and that has an appeal to Australian customers."

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