FAQs

LUDWIG+ is where Brand Actualization meets Business Acceleration. We help organizations uncover the soul of their brand, align every part of their business around it, and activate every customer experience to create meaningful, measurable growth. By integrating strategy, creativity, media, technology, AI, and customer experience, we don’t just market businesses – we create momentum for businesses that are designed to grow.

See Brand Actualization in action: Credit Acceptance (Platform, Identity & Brand System), Solutech (Brand Launch & Organizational Alignment), Freedom Forum (Purpose-Driven Brand Transformation).

UDWIG+ was founded in 2019 by Barbara Yolles Ludwig and has been engaged in marketing services for over six years. We are headquartered in Bingham Farms, Michigan.

Barbara Yolles Ludwig serves as CEO and Founder. She is a University of Maryland and University of Michigan alumna with more than three decades of executive marketing leadership spanning agencies and brands. Her career includes:

• LUDWIG+, Founder/CEO (2019–Present)
• TMS (Phoenix, AZ), Chief Strategy + Marketing Officer (2017–2019)
• UWM (Pontiac, MI), Chief Strategy + Marketing Officer (2013–2017)
• Campbell Ewald (Detroit, MI), Chief Marketing Officer (2012–2013)
• McCann (New York, NY), Chief Growth Officer NA (2010–2012)
• Kirshenbaum Bond, EVP/Management Supervisor (2008–2010)
• Doner (Southfield, MI), EVP, Account Management Director (2002–2007)
• McDonald’s (Philadelphia, PA), Senior Director of Marketing (2001–2002), Director of Marketing (1999–2000)
• Hair Cuttery (Falls Church, VA), Director of Marketing (1998–1999)
• Doner (Baltimore, MD), VP, Account Director (1994–1998)
• Ally Gargano (New York, NY), VP, Account Supervisor (1990–1994)

Relevant client experience includes Oncourse Home Solutions, Rocket Mortgage, TMS, TMS Insurance, Pennymac, Pennymac Insurance, Carrington, Loan Simple, Florida Power & Light, PNC Bank, UWM, and NextEra Energy. Barbara’s full bio is available here.

Yes. Our D&B number is 118100597.

LUDWIG+ holds the following designations: Woman Owned Small Business (WOSB), Women Owned (51%), and Michigan Based Business (MBB). We are not designated as a Small Business, Small Disadvantaged Business, HUB Zone Small Business, Disabled Owned Business, Veteran Owned Small Business, or Minority Owned business.

We hold a Michigan Business Certificate and are an Equal Opportunity Employer with a written Drug and Alcohol Policy. We require that subcontractors comply with our Drug and Alcohol Policy.

LUDWIG+ has no history of bankruptcy or reorganization proceedings and has no limitations to perform work in Michigan.

LUDWIG+ is an active member of the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), 4As (American Association of Advertising Agencies), SoDA (Society of Digital Agencies), and Adcraft. Our CEO holds a leadership role within the 4As and is deeply engaged in the Detroit advertising community.

Anyone can create a campaign. Few can transform a business. LUDWIG+ starts where most agencies stop: with the organization itself. Through our InsideOut Transformation process, we uncover what makes your business authentic at the core. We align leadership, culture, and brand values around a shared vision and activate it across every customer experience. When the business works better together, marketing performs better too. Better marketing is the outcome. Business transformation is the goal.

Related work: Solutech (From merger to unified brand), TMS (Reimagining an entire category in 97 days), Pennymac (Building a brand from the inside out).

Most organizations think branding is something you communicate. We believe it’s something you become. Brand Actualization is the process of aligning every part of the organization around the same purpose, promise, and customer experience – strategy, leadership, culture, operations, technology, AI, communications, and marketing all working together to consistently deliver what the brand promises. When that alignment exists, trust grows. Employees become advocates. Customers become loyal. Marketing becomes more effective because it’s amplifying an authentic business rather than compensating for a disconnected one.

See Brand Actualization: TMS, Credit Acceptance, Solutech, Freedom Forum.

InsideOut Transformation is the framework behind everything we do. Rather than beginning with advertising or creative campaigns, we start inside the organization – uncovering the purpose, strengths, culture, leadership vision, customer insights, and ambitions that already exist but often remain disconnected. From there, we align the business around a shared direction and activate that alignment across brand strategy, customer experience, marketing, AI optimization, media, communications, and technology. Most agencies start with marketing. We start with the business. When the business changes, marketing becomes exponentially more powerful.

See the InsideOut approach: Solutech, TMS, Credit Acceptance, Pennymac.

LUDWIG+ unifies business strategy, organizational alignment, branding, creative, media, AI optimization, customer experience, digital marketing, UX/UI, public relations, reputation management, and brand activation into one integrated growth model. Individually, these capabilities solve marketing challenges. Together, they solve business challenges – creating alignment across leadership, culture, customer experience, and communications so every initiative supports a shared vision for growth.

See integrated work: Credit Acceptance (Platform, Brand, Website, Design System), Trademark (Brand, UX, Website, Experiential), Freedom Forum (Brand Strategy & National Campaign).

We operate across a wide range of channels to engage consumers in innovative and effective ways:

Video Production: Compelling commercials, short- and long-form videos, animations, and branded content for TV, social media, web, and digital advertising.

Digital & Social Media: Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, X, websites, and webinars.

Email & CRM: Targeted email campaigns and CRM strategies delivering personalized messaging to nurture relationships and drive conversions.

Traditional Media: TV, radio, print, Out-of-Home (OOH), and direct mail.

Paid Marketing: Paid search, display, social media advertising, and programmatic buying.

Content & Product Development: Blogs, articles, podcasts, product narratives, and product development collaboration.

Experiential & Out-of-Home: Events, activations, immersive experiences, and OOH placements (billboards, transit ads).

Emerging Technologies: Voice assistants, AI-driven chatbots, VR, and AR.

For media specifically, we execute across Linear TV, CTV/OTT, Terrestrial/Streaming Radio/Podcasts, OOH, DOOH, Paid Search, Paid Social, Programmatic Ads, and Direct Mail – all managed in-house.

A true full-service agency isn’t measured by the breadth of its capabilities. It’s measured by how seamlessly those capabilities work together. At LUDWIG+, strategy, creativity, media, technology, AI, and customer experience aren’t separate departments – they’re connected, working toward a single business outcome: helping organizations grow with greater clarity, consistency, and momentum.

See how multiple disciplines come together: Credit Acceptance, Trademark, FIAT.

A branding agency shapes perception. An advertising agency drives attention. The strongest organizations need both, in the right order. Branding defines who you are, what you stand for, and why your business matters. Advertising takes that foundation to market, transforming strategy into campaigns that build awareness, create demand, and inspire action. At LUDWIG+, every great campaign starts with a great brand. When your strategy, story, and customer experience are aligned, every marketing dollar works harder because every message is rooted in the same truth.

Examples: TMS (transformed its company mission before launching advertising), Freedom Forum (built a movement around the First Amendment), Credit Acceptance (aligned its business platform before activating marketing).

LUDWIG+ helps organizations across automotive, healthcare, financial services, manufacturing, retail, agriculture, consumer packaged goods, technology, energy, education, and nonprofit sectors. While each industry has its own dynamics, the principles of building trust, creating demand, and accelerating growth are universal.

Explore our experience: Healthcare (Walker Healthforce, Solutech, RAYUS, Dragonfly Health), Financial Services (Credit Acceptance, Pennymac, TMS), Automotive (RAM, FIAT), Consumer Brands (Milo’s Tea), Nonprofit (Freedom Forum, Pink Fund).

Yes. We have significant experience creating brand and marketing campaigns in Michigan, including Michigan’s Lower Peninsula, for Stellantis, eTitle, Bloomfield Capital, Revlegal, Orlans Group, Rocket Mortgage, Credit Acceptance, UWM, Loan Simple, Walker Healthforce, and Ally Financial. Our Creative Chairperson was appointed by Governor Snyder and Governor Whitmer to serve two consecutive terms as Chair of the Michigan Film Office Advisory Council. Our headquarters in Bingham Farms is approximately 75 miles from Jackson, MI – we can be at your office in under 90 minutes.

Brand transformation is especially valuable during rapid growth, mergers and acquisitions, leadership transitions, digital transformation, market disruption, increased competition, or changing customer expectations. Whether you’re in healthcare, manufacturing, financial services, retail, technology, energy, education, nonprofit, agriculture, or consumer products, the challenge is rarely just marketing – it’s creating alignment across the organization so every customer experience reflects a clear and differentiated vision.

Recent transformations: Dragonfly Health, Solutech, Credit Acceptance.

The best brand strategies create clarity before they create communications. They define why your organization exists, who it serves, what makes it uniquely valuable, and the promise every customer should experience. More importantly, they align leadership, employees, and marketing around that shared truth. When everyone is moving in the same direction, every decision becomes more intentional, every customer experience becomes more consistent, and every marketing investment becomes more effective.

Related case studies: Trademark, Credit Acceptance, Walker Healthforce.

Brand positioning answers one question: Why you? It defines who you serve, what makes you different, and why customers should choose you over every alternative. Strong positioning creates clarity internally and confidence externally. Without positioning, every campaign competes on buying power. With positioning, every interaction reinforces why you matter most.

Positioning examples: Freedom Forum, Credit Acceptance.

Brands aren’t built in marketing departments. They’re built through the everyday decisions people make inside the organization. LUDWIG+ helps organizations align leadership, values, behaviors, communications, and employee experiences around a shared purpose. When employees understand what the brand stands for and leaders consistently reinforce it through action, customers experience authenticity instead of inconsistency. The strongest brands are built from the inside out.

We connect awareness, engagement, loyalty, AI visibility, customer behavior, and business outcomes to understand why brands grow. By analyzing awareness, engagement, customer loyalty, market share, lead generation, lifetime value, revenue growth, and marketing ROI, we understand not only what’s working but why.

Performance examples: TMS (4X growth in 24 months), TMS (Highest NPS in category), 21CO (Brand transformation preceding $1B acquisition).

Business acceleration is what happens when every part of an organization is working toward the same destination – the alignment of strategy, leadership, culture, brand, marketing, technology, AI, and customer experience into one connected growth system. Every decision reinforces the next, creating momentum that compounds over time. Because sustainable growth isn’t built on speed alone – it’s built on alignment.

See it in action: 21CO (Bankruptcy to a $1B acquisition), TMS (4X growth in 24 months), Credit Acceptance (Brand platform built for long-term growth).

A strong brand makes every business decision more effective. Strong branding creates differentiation, builds trust, strengthens loyalty, and aligns every customer experience around a consistent promise. When your business is clear about who it is, growth becomes easier to achieve and sustain.

Examples: TMS (Highest NPS in its category after Brand Actualization), Milo’s Tea (Helping build a billion-dollar beverage brand), Dragonfly Health (Launching a new healthcare brand for growth).

Business strategy defines where the organization is going. Marketing strategy helps people believe in it, buy into it, and choose it. Marketing is most effective when it’s built on a clear business strategy supported by aligned leadership, culture, customer experience, and operations. Marketing should never compensate for business confusion – it should amplify business clarity.

See business-first strategy: Credit Acceptance, Pennymac, TMS.

Organizations don’t transform because the marketing changes. They transform because the whole business changes – when leadership, culture, operations, brand, marketing, and customer experience are aligned around a shared vision. Every decision becomes more intentional. Every interaction becomes more consistent. Every investment works harder.

See transformation: Solutech (Merging two organizations into one culture), Credit Acceptance, Pennymac.

Every customer has a story. Journey mapping helps us understand every interaction along the way, from first impression to lifelong loyalty. Customers judge brands by every interaction, not every department. When you remove friction and create better experiences, customers reward you with trust, advocacy, and growth.

See customer experience design: Trademark (UX & Experiential), Credit Acceptance (Digital Experience), Solutech (Website & Customer Journey).

Open. Transparent. Urgent. Aligned. That’s how you win with LUDWIG+. We surveyed the L+ team to answer this, and our top three needs are openness, respect, and collaboration.

Openness is where it all starts. We need you to be open – with your goals, aspirations, people, data, process, systems, and more. This is how we unearth the soul of your brand and business. Be open to new thinking, diverse points of view, and being pushed in ways that unleash your full potential.

Respect, while obvious, is essential. It resides within each individual and each company’s culture. We must respect what we each bring to the relationship, process, the business, and the challenge.

Collaboration is how we work. We want a true partner – all working toward the same goal, with structure and good systems, to make each other better.

We have several clients – including Oncourse Home Solutions, Rocket Mortgage, and Stellantis – with complex marketing organizations comprised of multiple teams, each with its own priorities, urgencies, and emergencies. We architect brand teams that are built to navigate complexity: agile enough to adapt, disciplined enough to stay aligned, and empathetic collaborators across silos.

As your partner, it’s our job to help you prioritize work across the organization through a structured, integrated approach: aligning on strategic objectives, gathering input across teams, prioritizing work by business value and urgency, assessing capacity across all functions, managing trade-offs transparently, and continuously reprioritizing as new needs emerge – all while maintaining clear and proactive communication.

We don’t treat brand and performance as separate lanes – we build campaigns where they fuel each other. We design integrated programs that align long-term brand growth with short-term business results: one connected strategy, one creative platform, and one highly coordinated team that can move from high-level storytelling to in-market action, seamlessly.

We build the brand from the InsideOut – starting with the soul of your brand that informs the big idea, one that can flex across audiences (B2B and B2C), channels, formats, and funnel stages. Whether it’s a brand campaign, a retail-driven promotion, or a news-driven alert, every element is part of a larger ecosystem designed to drive awareness, engagement, and conversion.

Every morning at 9:30 AM, our senior leadership team holds an all-hands daily huddle powered by EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating System) to spot issues early and solve them immediately. Our governance operates on three escalation levels:

Level 1 – Incident Response: Day-to-day issues like talent resourcing or quick deliverable tweaks are tackled immediately by your account manager and team leads.

Level 2 – Problem Management: Mid-level concerns such as resource allocation, timeline shifts, or creative direction escalate to senior managers and department heads for swift resolution.

Level 3 – Strategic Intervention: High-impact challenges including major scope changes, strategic pivots, or critical client needs trigger executive team and agency founder involvement.

Throughout it all, communication is open and transparent – you’re always in the loop. Our governance isn’t bureaucracy; it’s a system designed to make sure your brand gets the focus and speed it deserves.

Our Project Manager and Business Affairs Director lead the cost estimation process, leveraging vendor bids when external partners are involved and historical data on similar projects to ensure accuracy. For internal work, we start with a detailed scoping document that breaks down hours and resources based on deliverable complexity.

Once budgets and estimates are approved, we monitor hours on a semi-monthly basis. If we anticipate overages beyond the typical 5–10% buffer, we proactively alert your team to adjust plans together – no surprises. When it comes to rework, if revisions stem from agency oversight, we own it and make it right. If rework stems from changes in scope or client direction, we provide a transparent assessment and collaborate on how to handle any impact on budget or timeline.

The sun will never set on our clients. Your dedicated team will be armed with a dedicated phone line and email, ensuring a human response within 30 minutes at any hour. The L+ team will have several pre-planned action plans to navigate procedures and protocols so your team is well-supported and can focus on more pressing matters.

We have team members well-versed in 24/7 client environments – including airline, financial, and political campaign clients – who know how to ensure coverage is always on. This after-hours model is built into our overall fee structure, and we are completely transparent about what these costs are.

Yes. We provide detailed invoices and reports on an agreed-upon billing cycle and on request as needed. We have a comprehensive financial and business management process that ensures we are managing costs to the scope of our contract, staff hours, and production and media costs. We typically report monthly but can pivot to whatever cadence works with your internal requirements.

Internally, we use Monday.com to organize development and production workflows. Externally, we seamlessly integrate with clients’ preferred tools – our project managers are experts in Monday.com and Adobe Workfront (including CE ASP instances) – to manage workstreams, approvals, and timelines with precision. Every meeting is recorded, and detailed minutes with clear action steps are delivered within one hour.

Quality control is baked into every stage: client reviews, compliance adherence, meticulous proofreading, secure file storage, and thorough QA testing across functionality, compatibility, and performance for digital programs. We establish continuous feedback loops to monitor program performance in real time, quickly identify and address issues, and optimize tactics over time.

Standard office hours are Monday through Friday, 8 AM–6 PM. However, we pride ourselves on being a true extension of our clients’ teams and always endeavor to have coverage outside of office hours as needed. Dedicated email addresses and phone lines, as well as a rotation of coverage among your core team, ensure clear action plans are always in place.

We are who we are – whether you are our client or an agency partner we’re working with on integrated projects, the same LUDWIG+ team shows up. We look to quickly establish rules of the road and clear lines of responsibility and accountability. We recommend setting up an Integrated Agency Team and allowing that team to establish rapport, protocols, and KPIs they are mutually responsible to deliver. We collaborate directly with creative, PR, brand, and digital teams – often leading cross-agency calls. What we need: audience targets, campaign objectives, creative calendars, brand guardrails, and any existing block lists or media partnerships.

Only two clients have ended their relationship with LUDWIG+ after we helped them achieve an acquisition – 21st Century achieved a $1.05 billion acquisition within 11 months of the LUDWIG+ rebrand, and TMS achieved an acquisition within 18 months of a rebrand. Outside of client budgetary constraints or defined scope project terms, LUDWIG+ has not been terminated by any client.

At LUDWIG+, protecting our clients from fraud is a top priority through a multi-layered approach combining strong internal controls, rigorous external partner vetting, and continuous monitoring.

Internal controls include: clear documented policies with mandatory employee training; segregation of duties so no single individual controls critical processes; regular internal audits; continuous risk assessment across all agency operations; and straightforward reporting channels.

For external partners, we thoroughly vet all vendors and platforms for anti-fraud capabilities, require detailed reporting and raw data access for independent verification, deploy cutting-edge machine learning software to filter invalid traffic, and partner with top-tier ad verification companies including Integral Ad Science (IAS) and DoubleVerify. We also actively participate in the Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG) and the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB).

LUDWIG+ uses a data-driven, audience-first strategy grounded in deep market research and behavioral insight. Our process begins with comprehensive audience analysis, leveraging historical performance data, persona development, and segmentation insights to map key customer triggers, identify high-potential geographies, and understand audience differentiators. We integrate first- and third-party data – including CDI, BDI, ACV, MRI-Simmons, Nielsen, Comscore, and Claritas – to understand where audiences live, consume media, and make purchase decisions.

Our media planning spans statewide, regional, and local levels. With over 2.5 million U.S. consumers surveyed quarterly, we develop detailed persona models based on sentiment, profession, voting preferences, and more. Mobile insights help us build custom audiences – such as targeting devices at manufacturing plants to reach industrial buyers in key markets.

The L+Optimization Engine is our proprietary AI-powered platform – the heartbeat of our planning process. It combines analytics, automation, and AI to deliver smarter, faster, and more precise marketing. We layer eMarketer, Mintel, Nielsen, and first-party data with historical performance to build media plans. Our ECHO AI tool models ideal audiences and creative performance. Our media team works alongside strategy and analytics to validate assumptions and scenario plans against True North KPIs.

For our clients, we ingest data daily via APIs from all media channels, Google Analytics, CRMs, first-party data sources, and more – giving us a real-time, end-to-end view of the full marketing and business picture.

ECHO AI is our proprietary platform that powers precision audience targeting based on behavioral and business impact signals, dynamic message optimization across channels and segments, and real-time performance adjustments that fine-tune both media and creative without delay. ECHO AI operates across 16 DSPs to maximize efficiency, scale, and ROI – learning, adapting, and optimizing in real time. For Milo’s Sweet Tea, we delivered a ROAS of $2.58 against a $1.58 goal.

Our campaign lifecycle flows as follows:

Plan →Vendor Negotiation →Platform Setup →QA →Launch →Real-Time Monitoring

Strategy and audience planning define goals, budgets, KPIs, target audiences, and the optimal channel mix. Formalized RFP processes are then initiated with vetted vendors across TV, radio, OOH, and direct media partners. Platform setup follows across Google Ads, Meta, The Trade Desk, DV360, and others. Compliance and internal QA – covering brand safety standards (IAS/DoubleVerify), GDPR/CCPA regulations, platform policies, and internal checklists for creative, pacing, targeting, accessibility, and link verification – are critical throughout. After launch, campaigns are monitored in real-time through dashboards and platform-native tools, with daily tracking and weekly optimization. Financial oversight includes weekly budget tracking and monthly reconciliation with full audit trails. Post-campaign wrap includes custom performance reports, key learnings, and strategic recommendations.

All buying is done in-house across platforms including DV360, The Trade Desk, Meta, X, YouTube, and Google Ads.

We have extensive experience managing statewide, regional, local, emergency-response, and digital-only campaigns for brands like Milo’s, Freedom Forum, Pennymac, and TMS across CTV/OTT, digital, print, email, direct mail, OOH, Terrestrial/Streaming Radio/Podcasts, DOOH, Paid Search, Paid Social, Programmatic Ads, Linear TV, and radio.

Statewide: Multi-million-dollar efforts across TV, radio, OOH, streaming, and digital – for example, a statewide campaign for Holganix targeting rural and urban populations including farmers and carbon advocates.

Local: Precision targeting with hyper-local digital, print, and transit ads. For Milo’s Sweet Tea entering Pittsburgh, we crafted tailored “Yinzers meet Y’all” messaging using ECHO AI for accuracy and relevance.

Emergency/Rapid Response: Crisis media including COVID messaging for lenders and rapid digital buys within hours for retail clients.

Digital-Only: Programmatic display, video, social, OTT/CTV, SEM, and native ads.

Typical turnaround times: Digital campaigns (3–5 days), Broadcast/Radio/OOH (1–2 weeks), Emergency digital buys (within 24 hours).

Depending on scale, channel, and complexity, adjustments happen regularly:

Small, frequent adjustments (weekly or bi-weekly): Bid adjustments, negative keyword updates, ad copy variations. Monthly or quarterly deep-dives: Broader view of campaign performance, strategy adjustments, and long-term opportunity identification. Major optimizations (every six months): For successful, stable campaigns. Continuous optimization: Real-time data analysis and automated rule-based adjustments as needed.

Triggers for changes include campaign performance data (CTR, engagement rate, conversion rate, CPC), market conditions and competitor activity, shifts in customer behavior, budget reallocation opportunities, A/B testing results, and competitive landscape changes. We work with you to define “gates of change” – what adjustments can be made instantly, what needs escalation, and to whom.

We align performance metrics to business objectives across the full funnel:

Awareness & Reach: Reach, impressions, frequency, brand lift (awareness, recall, sentiment).

Media Efficiency: CPM, CPV, CPC, CTR, VTR, CPL, CPA.

Engagement & Site Behavior: Engagement rate, video completion rates, site traffic (GA4), conversion pathing.

Offline & Business Impact: Foot traffic (via location data), sales lift, ROAS.

Post-buy analytics is a performance engine at LUDWIG+. Clients receive 24/7 access to custom dashboards via Looker Studio or proprietary tools – role-based, with executive summaries for leadership and tactical breakdowns for media and marketing teams showing real-time data on spend, reach, engagement, and conversion.

We go beyond media efficiency to measure true business impact: GA4 for site behavior and conversion tracking, brand lift studies, foot traffic analysis using location data, sales lift modeling, and video engagement metrics. ECHO AI continuously optimizes campaigns in-flight, dynamically adjusting targeting, bidding, and creative. Multi-touch attribution models map how each channel and touchpoint contributes to the final outcome. Post-buy insights feed directly back into the L+Optimization Engine – informing smarter planning, sharper creative, and stronger future results.

Reports are delivered bi-weekly or monthly, depending on client needs, with insights by audience, channel, and creative and clear optimization recommendations.

Weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual reports are common practice. We pull data automatically via APIs on a daily basis from all advertising channels, Google Analytics, CRMs, and any other available data sources to build a holistic picture, then build live, 24/7 accessible dashboards for client and internal teams. Executive views focus on high-level strategy; tactical views drive daily performance improvement.

Our creative process is powered heavily by data: we systematically set up A/B tests with specific audiences and measure KPIs (CTR, CPC, CPA, CVR) to objectively understand what creative performs best and inform future creative direction. We also integrate alert systems and automated rules to ensure campaigns are monitored and performing as expected – and if they’re not, we quickly make the necessary changes.

We also believe digital metrics are not enough: our in-house analytics team measures sales lift and conversion using test and control variables to tell you exactly how much our media has moved the needle.

Yes. We currently manage multi-media-only relationships where the client retains a separate creative AOR. Our dedicated media team is well-positioned to take on day-to-day leadership, management, and execution of large media accounts and integrates seamlessly with outside partner agencies to enhance the delivery of a client’s message.

LUDWIG+ uses a hybrid compensation model: a base retainer for strategy, planning, and analytics plus a variable fee tied to actual media spend. This model is ideal for clients with fluctuating media needs or seasonal campaigns. For growth-focused brands, we also offer performance-based incentives tied to defined KPIs – such as CPA, ROAS, conversions, or sales lift – where we share in the upside when we exceed benchmarks.

For media buying, we use 16 Demand-Side Platforms (DSPs) including The Trade Desk, DV360, Amobee, and Amazon DSP. Our primary ad servers are Google Campaign Manager and Sizmek, though we are flexible with client-preferred tools. For brand safety and fraud prevention, we rely on Integral Ad Science (IAS) and DoubleVerify.

Programmatic: The Trade Desk, DV360 Search/Social: Google Ads, Meta Business Manager, LinkedIn Ads, Basis Technologies, X Traditional: WideOrbit, Strata, iHeart Analytics: Google Analytics (GA4), Salesforce Datorama, Power BI, Tableau, Looker Studio, Nielsen Campaign Lift, Kantar Brand Lift, MOAT, IAS, DoubleVerify Data Pipelines: Supermetrics Testing: Optimizely, Google Optimize Email/CRM: Marketo, Pardot, HubSpot, Salesforce Social Management: HubSpot

For research and planning, we partner with DV360, eMarketer, Mintel, LiveRamp, SimilarWeb, MediaRadar, MRI-Simmons, Nielsen Media Impact, Kantar, Comscore Plan Metrix.

We are platform-agnostic and fully flexible to our clients’ needs, including Salesforce Marketing and Sales integrations.

Additional services available include CRM integration, translation, media audits, competitive audits, analytics, brand lift, custom dashboards, location targeting, GA4 expertise, and ECHO AI.

Our staffing model is built to drive growth and performance with none of the usual agency bureaucracy. We keep things lean and flat to move fast and stay close to your business. Founder Barbara Yolles Ludwig and senior leaders are hands-on partners who are active in day-to-day operations – you’ll hear from Barbara at minimum weekly, and more often if needed.

Your dedicated client team is a powerhouse mix of seasoned Marketing, Creative, and Activation leaders who architect your brand strategy, paired with highly trained rising stars running the daily hustle. We also maintain a flexible bench of subject matter experts – brand positioning specialists, digital ethnographers, content producers, UX/UI designers – ready to engage when needed, minimizing cost while delivering unmatched expertise exactly when it counts.

We have the bandwidth to scale instantly when demand surges. The key is open, honest communication – when you flag the need, we pivot fast.

We created L+ University (L+U), which offers certifications, training, and mentorship programs to ensure each employee provides clients with leading-edge service. Our performance plans require continuous learning once per quarter through online courses, industry events, and professional development opportunities.

L+U curriculum includes: certifications in TradeDesk, Google Ads, Meta, and others; access to LinkedIn Learning, internal workshops, and external training programs; mentorship pairing experienced professionals with junior team members; and professional development through relevant college courses and professional organizations. Our media team holds certifications in Google, Meta, and The Trade Desk.

We are deeply committed to building and sustaining a strong Michigan-based talent pipeline. Through partnerships with Michigan State, University of Michigan, the College for Creative Studies, community colleges, and associations like Adcraft Detroit, we actively recruit and develop emerging talent. Our CEO plays a leadership role in the 4A’s and local initiatives to strengthen Detroit’s advertising community.

We offer hybrid and remote flexibility statewide, continuous learning through Lynda, Skillshare, and platform certifications, and invest in retention through clear career paths, mentorship, DEI initiatives, and competitive benefits.

We have a strong, proactive succession plan to ensure seamless continuity. Each client is supported by a fully integrated brand team – with shared knowledge across strategy, creative, media, and analytics – so no expertise is ever dependent on one individual. Every account has a designated secondary lead who is cross-trained, embedded, and ready to step in immediately.

Key elements: embedded teams with shared account knowledge; documented roles, SOPs, and knowledge hubs for fast handoff; internal shadowing and leadership development for promotable talent; a vetted bench of freelance and contract professionals in Michigan; a local, in-house recruiting team; all leaders with a 4–8 week separation clause (no cause) to allow for structured transitions; and active involvement in the Detroit ad community keeping our talent network strong.

In the first 90 days, we prioritize deep immersion and seamless integration with the client team:

Immersion & Brand Deep Dives: Intensive sessions to understand brand history, customer segments, products, strategic priorities, and marketing performance – including review of existing playbooks, brand guidelines, messaging standards, and compliance protocols.

Stakeholder Engagement: Discovery workshops and meet-and-greets with key internal and external stakeholders to understand business goals, pain points, and cross-functional expectations.

Fieldwork & Shadowing: Ride-a-longs, virtual tours, and customer support observations to gain firsthand insight into the customer journey and operational context.

Regulatory & Industry Training: Quick onboarding into the regulatory landscape and industry dynamics to ensure all strategies and content align with compliance requirements.

Strategic Planning & Opportunity Audits: Concurrent auditing of current efforts and identification of opportunities across campaign strategy, media optimization, and content integration, laying the groundwork for actionable planning and performance-driven execution.

Customers don’t experience your business on one channel at a time – they move seamlessly between your website, advertising, sales conversations, social media, customer service, AI search results, and in-person experiences. An integrated marketing agency ensures every touchpoint works together through a unified strategy, consistent messaging, connected creative, shared data, and coordinated execution.

Traditional advertising builds awareness and shapes perception. Performance marketing generates measurable actions – clicks, leads, purchases, conversions. Today’s most successful organizations need both. Brand-building creates long-term demand; performance marketing captures demand when customers are ready to act. LUDWIG+ integrates both so organizations can strengthen their brand while delivering measurable business results.

Effective media planning combines audience insights, customer data, market intelligence, AI-driven optimization, channel strategy, and continuous performance measurement to reach the right people at the right time with the right message. At LUDWIG+, media never operates in isolation – every investment is connected to business strategy, brand positioning, creative, and customer experience, so every dollar contributes to measurable growth instead of disconnected campaign metrics.