Gapingvoid

“Hugh MacLeod is a cartoonist and professional blogger, known for his ideas about how “Web 2.0” affects advertising and marketing. After a decade of working as an advertising copywriter, Hugh started blogging at gapingvoid.com in 2001. He first started off just publishing his cartoons, but as time wore on he started blogging about his other main interest i.e. marketing.

In 2004 he wrote “How To Be Creative” and “The Hughtrain”, which both got widely read in the blogosphere. In 2005 he scored his first major blog marketing success with EnglishCut.com, a blog he started with Savile Row tailor, Thomas Mahon. It tripled Thomas’ sales within six months. Since mid-2006 Hugh’s main occupation has been helping a small South African winery, Stormhoek “rise above the clutter” in the wine market by using Web 2.0 tools to get the word out. Sales have gone up fivefold since then, thanks to Hugh’s marketing efforts.

Since 2006 Hugh has been constantly engaged as a public speaker, giving talks in both Europe and the US, talking about Web 2.0 and the ramifications it has on business. Hugh’s basic mantra about blog marketing is “Blogs are a good way to make things happen indirectly”, a point lost on many corporate types.”