Moe Chughtai says social video is as important as TV and helps brands plan accordingly

Moe Chughtai is global head of advanced TV at MiQ, the digital marketing firm, where he helps agencies and brands navigate an increasingly complex connected TV marketplace. This year, the 31-year-old led the global launch of MiQ’s connected TV ad platform, which marketers use to plan digital video campaigns that go everywhere from linear TV to YouTube. “Where we see agencies really struggle is servicing large brands that are multi-market,” Chughtai said. “What you’ve got to do is you’ve got to bring together data from the linear world, data from the connected TV world, data from YouTube, and some of the walled gardens,” he added, “and bring it all together into one place for agencies.” See all of Ad Age’s 40 Under 40 honorees here One of the problems Chughtai is trying to solve in connected TV is how to integrate campaigns from streaming to video on social media, which is comprised of the walled gardens within apps such as TikTok and Instagram. “Social video is becoming the dominant video category … it’ll be bigger than linear and CTV combined,” Chughtai said. He also is working on e-commerce technology that is becoming integral to streaming ad campaigns. Like many agencies and ad tech firms, MiQ is growing its footprint in connected TV, seeing it as the next main area of growth. Video is inching up toward about half of MiQ’s global revenue, according to Chughtai. Brands such as Ikea and Subway have used MiQ’s TV intelligence platform to make their campaigns more efficient, Chughtai said. For Ikea, it led to $220,000 in savings, and Subway found 11% higher incremental reach by using the platform to target audiences the brand previously missed. If you could have dinner with one person, alive or dead, who would it be and why? I’d love to have dinner with my maternal grandfather. He grew up in poverty in Pakistan and became a pretty well-known lawyer around the time of Pakistan’s independence. He married late and passed away when my mom was still young. I’d love to meet him and hear his story firsthand. What are the top two social media sites you use on a regular basis? I use X (Twitter) to stay on top of advertising and marketing news and conversations. It’s really underrated for connecting with industry thought leaders and journalists, plus the advertising community on X usually shares news before it hits the big trade outlets. I also use YouTube for daily entertainment, general news (non-advertising/marketing), and reviews. What’s currently on your bedside reading list? I’ve always been a big fan of the Ender sci-fi series. Right now, I’m rereading it, and I’m on “Speaker for the Dead.” What was the last show you binge-watched? I just finished “House of Dragons” season 2 a few weeks ago. Now I’m splitting my time between “Shark Tank” on Hulu and either “Suits” or “Love is Blind” (UK) on Netflix. At what age do you hope to retire? I started out as a teacher, then moved into operations, sales, product management, and now partnerships. I’m sure I’ll wear more hats in the future, but I don’t have any plans to retire anytime soon. See all of Ad Age’s 40 Under 40 honorees here

Moe Chughtai says social video is as important as TV and helps brands plan accordingly

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