Twitter is to partner with Festival of Media Asia Pacific Awards for the launch of a new Live Marketing Award category, it has been announced.

The aim of the category is to reflect the increasing speed at which business operates today and the acceleration of marketing communications in the industry. It will celebrate the best real-time campaign by a brand or its agency leveraging Twitter.

Interested parties will need to submit a written entry highlighting the impact of a campaign that ran in Asia Pacific between 1 September 2014 and 31 December 2015.

The deadline for entries is Friday 26 February, and the shortlist will be announced on Monday 14 March. Click here for more information on how to enter.

As part of a wider partnerships, Twitter will also host the Festival of Media Asia Academy training session for emerging young talent at media and advertising agencies, brand and media owner companies interested in real-time marketing excellence.

Danielle Redwood, managing director for Festival of Media Awards, said: “We are excited to have Twitter on board as a partner for the Live Marketing Awards.

“Be it campaigning for the elections or crowdsourcing relief for natural disasters, marketing effectiveness is all about real-time today and platforms like Twitter are essential to a marketer’s arsenal.”

“From its beginning, Twitter is the first service that people open to see what’s happening in the world right now, direct from the source, and live, as it unfolds,” added Frederique Covington, international marketing director at Twitter.

“Twitter is people’s live connection to the world, live connection to culture. As such, we are pleased to introduce the first Twitter Live Marketing award at the Festival of Media Asia.”

Twitter’s head of brand strategy for Asia Pacific and Middle East, Steven Kalifowitz, will join the panel of judges, which also includes Procter & Gamble vice president Ajit Nayak and MasterCard head on media APAC Shivani Goswami.