The agency, which won the account after a competitive pitch, has been briefed to launch the festival to UK media targeting 25-to- 45-year-olds across music, luxury, lifestyle and digital. It will also handle consumer and trade PR for the event’s inaugural sailing in September 2013.

The team will be led by House's associate director Liana Mellotte and account director Claire Ruddock.

Keren McKean, Offshore festival director, said: "We chose to work with House PR because of their significant media relations experience in the live music sector, their excellent creativity and their unrivalled media contacts. As this is the first year of Offshore, the PR campaign is vitally important to create and build awareness within our target market."

Liana said: "Offshore is a completely unique festival experience and we are thrilled to be adding it our live music portfolio. Our first task will be launching the festival to industry and consumers, and we are already in talks with a number of media partners with whom we will work closely throughout the campaign."

The festival, which sets sail from Venice on 21 September 2013, consists of a week-long festival on the Mediterranean Sea for 2,500 guests on a luxury ship, sound-tracked by 18 guitar bands playing across five venues, 15 top DJs on state-of-the-art sound systems and 12 comedians.