Ex-Mediabrands APAC managing partner Swapna Nayak joins ByteDance

Swapna Nayak, former regional managing partner, APAC at IPG Mediabrands, has joined ByteDance as media lead, APAC, global marketing. Nayak (pictured) was with IPG Mediabrands for over nine years, and also helmed the role of regional client services director, APAC. Before IPG Mediabrands, Nayak was regional strategy director at Havas Media and, prior to that, she was director at Starcom.

Nayak also worked in similar roles during her time in India, where she was account director and client services director at Publicis India and Ogilvy India respectively. In a previous LinkedIn post, Nayak thanked IPG for giving her the opportunity to be part of the organisation, adding that there were many individuals who were integral and inspirational during her time with the agency network. Mediabrands' spokesperson told MARKETING-INTERACTIVE that the accounts Nayak was managing have been transitioned to existing team members over the past few months. MARKETING-INTERACTIVE has reached out to ByteDance for comment.

Earlier this month, ByteDance tied up with Qualcomm as part of the latter's move to enter the metaverse. According to the South China Morning Post, both parties are collaborating on hardware and software to build a global XR ecosystem. On the VR front, ByteDance acquired a start-up named Pico last year to support its entry into the space. Citing statistics from IDC, CNBC reported previously that Pico was the third-largest VR headset maker globally in the first quarter of last year.

Meanwhile, the company reshuffled its leadership last November by appointing Liang Rubo to succeed founder Zhang Yiming as chairman. Meanwhile, Shou Zi Chew also relinquished his title as ByteDance CFO to focus on running TikTok full time as CEO.

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