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Idea Planet is a solutions agnostic company comprised of consumer research, brand marketing, design, retail and manufacturing pros – all focused on bringing inspiration and innovation to the challenges businesses often face.

Started by Mike Flecker and his wife Kimberly, Idea Planet was incorporated in 2000 and opened its doors officially in January of 2001. Michael had spent years working in the entertainment marketing business and noticed the gap between the amazing creativity delivered in the entertainment industry and the "dumbed down" interpretation of it by the time it got to the consumer “at the last 3 feet” – in retail and packaging.

Within days, Michael and Kimberly set up a make-shift office in a side bedroom of their house. With the bathroom serving as a creative department and the shower stall functioning as a FedEx box storage closet, a company with a vision of “Bringing Entertainment To Life” was born. Based in Dallas, Texas, Idea Planet has offices in Los Angeles, Atlanta, Shenzhen and Taipei.

Idea Planet’s first business was in developing entertainment-focused merchandising and packaging solutions for clients like Hershey Foods and the Walt Disney Company. Its reputation as a leading industry innovator was solidified when PIXAR asked them to recreate their characters Mike & Sully from an upcoming movie, Monsters Inc., at retail.

Over the next few years, Idea Planet became known throughout the movie industry as the leader in bringing entertainment properties to life through “Retailtainment” displays at Wal-Mart and developing life-size character theatrical displays for movie franchises including Star Wars and Spiderman.

Studios like Dreamworks SKG asked Idea Planet to help their partners extend the movie experience beyond merchandising into packaging, and a new era for Idea Planet began. Idea Planet developed a unique Shrek hand-soap package for Dreamworks Animation and its partnership with Dial Soap and then began developing multiple entertainment and non-entertainment packaging solutions for companies like Hershey Foods.

Consumer Inspiration
In 2006, Idea Planet started working with idea development company HoundDog to bring “Consumer Inspiration” to their merchandising and packaging innovations process. Within a year, Idea Planet acquired HoundDog and Mike Ableman, HoundDog’s founder, became Idea Planet’s new partner and Chief Idea Officer.

Today, Idea Planet is truly a marketing innovations company that understands consumers and helps both entertainment and brand partners connect with their audience in a very intimate way through brand, product, packaging, merchandising and activation.

Company Highlights

 * Retailtainment events for Lucasfilm and the Walt Disney Company.
 * Theatrical merchandising for Walt Disney/PIXAR, Fox Studios and Warner Brothers.
 * Custom packaging and promotional product for Hershey Foods, Dial Soap, Lucasfilm.
 * Custom product and packaging for gaming properties including HALO, Call of Duty, and BioShock.
 * Brand activation for Southwest Airlines and Stauffer’s.
 * Consumer inspiration for DIAGEO, Frito-Lay, MillerCoors, Kimberly-Clark, Southwest Airlines.

Awards

 * POPAI Best of Industry Awards
 * POPAI Display of the Year Awards
 * Design OF The Times Platinum Awards
 * M16 Game Marketing Awards “Best Limited Edition” Awards