To Launch Digital Education Programme For Media Agency Professionals In Asia Pacific. Kicking off in India, hundreds of rising stars in the digital media planning industry across APAC will go head-to-head for a chance to attend Cannes 2018

Twitter today kicks off its new media agency programme #TweetToTheTop in India, reinforcing its commitment to the country as a strategic mobile and social media market worldwide. Eleven agencies from global media and advertising networks including Dentsu, GroupM, IPG and Omnicom will be participating in this initiative. #TweetToTheTop is Twitter’s first year-long agency engagement programme dedicated to young media executives in five countries in Asia Pacific: India, Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines and Australia.

In a recent eMarketer worldwide report, more than 60% of agency leads still have challenges measuring ROI on social media marketing, and more than 35% are challenged on tying social to business goals. Considering the increasing integration of social and digital into everyday lives especially in Asia Pacific, Twitter is leading the first digital education programme dedicated to helping media agency professionals navigate an increasingly dynamic and complex landscape.

#TweetToTheTop aims to attract hundreds of young media planners and executives from the five markets to showcase their best work using Twitter solutions. The collaboration with the biggest agencies in Asia Pacific and the world will provide media agency professionals with exclusive access to Twitter’s arsenal of solutions and global advertising tech leaders including Jayanta Jenkins, Twitter's Global Creative Director, and Stacy Minero, Twitter's Global Head of Planning & Creative Agency Development. The top 25 among them will compete to have their work entered into The Cannes Festival of Creativity in July 2018.

At each phase, hands-on training sessions will be offered by Twitter marketing executives to selected young media buying professionals. The participants will work in groups on three separate challenge briefs on hot social and business issues over the upcoming months.

“We’re proud to strengthen our collaboration with the top media agencies in Asia Pacific, leveraging Twitter’s resources to solve business challenges in the digital age,” says Simon Brockman, Head of Global Agencies, Asia Pacific, at Twitter. “As marketers increasingly look to their agency partners for brand insights, relevant real-time messaging, and customer research, we believe that #TweetToTheTop will support media agency talents to develop their digital knowledge and skills, and ultimately benefit brands by creating the best campaigns tailored to their needs.”

“At Twitter, we believe in working with agencies as partners in the decision making process as they navigate through the digital future. As India advances as a digital nation, our #TweetToTheTop initiative is a part of our commitment to help agencies and brands achieve their marketing goals,” added Taranjeet Singh, Country Director, Twitter India.

Cheuk Chiang, CEO, Asia Pacific at Omnicom Media Group said: “Engaging consumers on their topics of interest in real-time is key to connection, particularly within a programmatic landscape. This programme provides a great platform for our young talent to establish a deeper understanding of consumer engagement on Twitter as well as stay ahead of the ad technology curve.”

Sunil Yadav, President, Amplifi Asia Pacific at Dentsu Aegis Network said: “We consider Twitter in our media mix, but would like to see the differentiated value the platform offers with its new products and formats. Our media talents also look forward to learning from the workshops on how Twitter can provide data and real-time insights to optimise its programmatic outreach.”

Leigh Terry, CEO, APAC at IPG Mediabrands said: “We believe that smart data, smart technology and smart collaboration are essentials in maintaining our strong business trajectory. Developing young talent who belong to the ‘multi-screen’ and ‘always on’ generation is critical to our success, and this collaboration with Twitter will help us stay ahead of the curve in technological advancement on the platform, and add value to our clients in creating meaningful conversations with their consumers.”  

The year-long programme will be activated in three phases across six cities in five markets in the region, with the first workshop kicking off in Mumbai today. Here are some highlights from the session: