Bright Ideas: Meet the northern Michigan creatives behind the campaigns
February 2026
It’s everywhere. Brochures in hotel lobbies, magazines in waiting rooms, piling up inside your inbox. And because it’s everywhere, good, genuine marketing that swoons its intended audience from the get-go is becoming more and more important to standing out against the fray. Meet some of the agencies helping northern Michigan businesses do just that behind the scenes.
Idea Stream
StrattonSince opening in 2000, strategic marketing agency Idea Stream has built a roster of familiar names including Miner’s North and Sonny’s Body Shop.
“When I look back, what stands out most is the longevity of those relationships,” said Idea Stream Founder and Owner Marsha Stratton. After celebrating 25 years in the northern Michigan marketing scene, watching campaigns play out in real time over the decades has been the high point for Stratton.
“It’s always fun when we get to do something big and visible, like BATA bus wraps or billboards, and see our client’s names all over town,” she said.
Where you’ve seen their work: Idea Stream’s portfolio runs the gamut from web design that showcases the work of area builders like Mac Custom Homes to highlighting Cobblestone Farm’s features for faraway brides and grooms. The agency has also designed labels and packaging for Herkner Farms’ fruit toppings and is the team behind photo and drone footage assets for Copper Ridge Surgery Center.
On the creative process: Keeping her team – which includes three other creatives – lean, and the overhead at her downtown Traverse City office low means “more of our clients’ budgets can go toward outbound marketing and media,” said Stratton.
Keeping things simple on the home front has also played a big part in allowing her team to channel their energies totally to client goals and challenges while developing strategies in which “no detail is ever overlooked.”
What’s rolling out: Grand Traverse State Bank, a brand-new community-based bank set to launch this quarter, collaborated with Idea Stream over the last year to build their brand from the ground up. It’s a full-scale project that’s involved everything from developing the bank’s internal marketing strategies to designing good old-fashioned signage.
Proof Positive
Auch and Campbell
Eric Campbell can’t quite put a number on how many projects he and creative partner Jacquie Auch tackled at their boutique design firm, Proof Positive, in 2025.
“We do dozens and dozens of projects throughout any given year,” said Campbell, whose retainer clients keep the pair busy with a steady stream of smaller work throughout the week.
Where you’ve seen their work: The team has developed everything from marketing materials for the Grand Traverse Conservation District and Austin Groesser’s TC startup, Big Dipper Cookie Co. This last year Campbell and Auch launched Prout Financial Design’s revamped website, complete with video assets that bring visitors straight into the office. They also wrapped up a full packaging redesign for Traverse City beverage brand Northwoods Soda (a.k.a. the original supplier of Wild Bill’s Root Beer).
Campbell and Auch also expanded their agricultural niche, adding Lake Ann’s Wanderwood Farmstead and Old Mission Peninsula’s Local Yokels Farm to their 2025 calendar, two detail-oriented projects that Campbell said show just how “sophisticated and savvy” farm branding can be, right down to the wallpaper he designed for the latter’s market bathrooms.
On their creative process: Regardless of scope, the pair's process of brand building starts the same way: by digging into who a client is below the surface, then bringing their history and values to center in order to authentically appeal to their audience. Once that’s established, it’s easier for Proof Positive to create anything
from a square-one campaign to a light rebrand that feels totally genuine to their client’s brand identity – something businesses can’t afford to overlook, explains Campbell.
“Consumers are savvier than ever and are attracted to honesty and integrity in a brand,” he said. “That’s what sticks.”
What’s rolling out: Next up for Proof Positive is the continuation of a Brand Guidelines project for Oryana that kicked off last year, plus their annual update of outdoor-recreation focused visitors guides for the Gaylord Convention and Tourism Bureau and the Munising Visitor’s Bureau.
Brand Tonic
_and_lake_large.jpg)
Tompkins and LakeFrom brand consulting to full collateral rollouts, Audra Tompkins estimates that up to 90% of her marketing work over the past year was with northern Michigan organizations. She and business partner Jennifer Lake helm Brand Tonic, a boutique agency based in Traverse City’s SoFo neighborhood, where keeping contracts as local as possible allows them to offer clients more direct access – including meeting onsite to iron out campaign details. “That proximity allows us to stay connected,” said Tompkins.
Where you’ve seen their work: All over the packaging for Grocer’s Daughter chocolates, Copper Aesthetics metallic accented designs, Grand Traverse Pie Company’s modern brand identity, and Old Town Playhouse’s colorful, abstract logo. A large cut of Brand Tonic’s long-term clients are nonprofits. “Helping an organization evolve while staying true to who they are is one of our strengths,” said Tompkins, who along with Lake has added The Botanic Garden at Historic Barns Park, Leelanau Conservancy, Rotary Charities of Traverse City, and BATA to their portfolio over the years.
On their creative process: Keeping things close to home also helps the creatives manage audiences and expectations at the local level, while catching nuances out-of-area agencies might miss – from featuring the wild flora that pops up across The Botanic Garden in print materials, to incorporating the pine-green shades surrounding NMC into its brand identity, to knowing that a slice of Grand Traverse Pie Company’s cherry crumb is best captured in a state of messy imperfection across its visual collateral.
What’s rolling out: Lake and Tompkins have been collaborating with longtime client Interlochen Center for the Arts on fundraising campaign theming and an upcoming logo and design for the school’s centennial celebrations as they approach their 100th anniversary in 2028.
Petrovich familyCopper Bottom Creative Co.
For the husband and wife duo behind Copper Bottom Creative Co., Emily and John Petrovich’s most recent work has centered around the demands of creating marketing plans, ad designs and website builds for national clients along with a growing slate of northern Michigan work — all while juggling school pick-ups for their two young children.
The company started out in Colorado in 2009 before moving to Elk Rapids. Collaborating with other working parents looking to scale their business is practically part of the Petrovich’s own business plan.
“It seems to have brought us connection with clients who are also family and community-focused,” Emily said.
Where you’ve seen their work: The latest update to Edson Farms’ website featuring a mix of graphics and photography that the Petroviches curated to complement a brand identity that they call both clean and fresh. Copper Bottom Creative is also behind the Elk Rapids DDA’s newest marketing push, designing print campaigns around the business owners and community members surrounding River Street.
“The goal was for people viewing the ads to see the real faces and families behind the businesses,” said Emily, adding that the process has “has offered an opportunity for connection within the community.”
On their creative process: The Petroviches say a big lesson they learned when they first launched was the importance of always carrying out ethical strategies in order to build trust with their clients, while helping those clients do the same with their own customers. With AI making its way into more workflows – sometimes showing up as unsettling and uncanny – that authentic approach is becoming even more important to their work.
What’s rolling out: Copper Bottom Creative Co. just signed on to a brand refresh and full website redesign for Elk Rapids Harbor Days. As Elk Rapids locals, Emily says this one feels extra special.
“Our family loves Harbor Days, and our kids are especially excited knowing their parents are working on it,” she said.
