Not a single journalist has yet been able to interview the "PR man" Plato. But we managed to find out some of the secrets of the domestic show business.
Plato sounds proudly and beautifully, which fully corresponds to the inner state of the person in question. He entered the Belarusian show business from the back door, and still prefers to remain in the shadow of the artists with whom he works. In order, God forbid, not to overshadow them. Not a single journalist has yet been able to interview the "PR man" Plato. But we managed to be in the right place at the right time and get to know better the one to whom the stars of the domestic show business are lining up for services.
- Since childhood I have been playing football, - Plato began, as usual, from the very beginning. - At the age of 17, I had the opportunity to leave this country for Italy, where I intended to conclude a contract with an Italian club. However, there were problems with my departure, and I had to stay. I had to do something, I went to university, I found myself a job. She was not connected with football, because I did not see any reason to engage in this sport in our country: I was not satisfied with the opportunity to play in the weak Belarusian championship.
So you completely abandoned football?
- Of course not. Thanks to football, I got to know several artists, got into the football team "Art-stars". In parallel, I got carried away with PR. I began to read specialized literature, rummaged on the Internet for days, recalled something from what I saw in Italy. Then my friend advised me to work in this area - the PR of artists. They also became my first artist whom I tried to promote. At first, I only used the Internet in my work, then acquaintances began to appear in Russia … Then I burst out. Interesting ideas began to appear, I was just bursting with, I wanted to implement all of them faster. I mastered the journalistic craft (although it seemed impossible to me), which I needed to create an interview. I have mastered new PR moves, so as not to repeat myself, so as not to do PR on a void.
- I would not like to talk about it, so that people who listen, watch, read naturally perceive the artists, so that they could not even think that they had stumbled upon PR. I want to give the impression that the artist is interesting to journalists on his own, and not because he was pushed somewhere.
Most often, your materials can be seen on the Internet, where people can immediately write their reviews
- Yes. This is a big plus of the Internet. Although sometimes you can read this in these reviews! It happens that they just openly throw mud at the artist. I believe that the people who write this simply have not received something in their life - attention, love, money - and they are trying to compensate for this by lowering the artist to their level. A normal person would never do that. If you don't like the artist, you just don't listen to him and don't read about him.
Do the artists react painfully to such a mud attack?
- Oh yeah. But I explain that there is nothing wrong with that. It's scary when an artist doesn't cause any emotions at all. But if a person throws mud at you, this indicates that you are more successful than this person. And if the criticism is unfounded, I advise critics to shove their criticism … far away.
Why Plato? It is a nickname?
- No, that's my name. According to the passport. Can show.
Shows a passport. It actually says Plato.
- And why exactly Plato - questions to my parents.
- We have something in common with him … Probably the name.
What work are you most passionate about at the moment?
- I got a real official job. In the handball club "Dynamo-Minsk". I have been working there for about eight months. And we have already done a lot together.
How did a footballer and an experienced PR man get into the handball club?
- I have a good friend - football player Sergei Shtanyuk, who also has a good friend - former handball player and sports director of Dynamo Andrey Parashchenko. Once Seryoga called me and offered to help Dynamo with PR. I didn’t know anything about handball, I didn’t understand what they eat it with and what they drink it with. I went to the Dynamo office for a month. Imagine, it was a month driving to work! In the end, I still drove in, but I could not leave so easily. There were good people there, the general director Mikhail Mayevsky and the sports director of the already mentioned Andrey Parashchenko, who think in a modern way, which immediately bribed me. It is always pleasant to work with understanding people.
- We made the club's anthem, which Litesound sang and which I consider to be the best sports anthem, at least in our country. The guys really did their best and did a great thing. We also made the first handball flash game, which will soon appear on the official website of the club … In general, I have long wanted to implement this idea with one artist, but did not find understanding in this matter, although thanks to my connections the creation of such a game would have cost a meager amount. We also did an awesome photo shoot that no team in our country has. Several photos will soon be featured on billboards throughout the city. There is a lot of work done. And despite the fact that Dynamo has certain financial problems, I think these developments will find their application.
PR in sports and PR in show business - are these two areas similar?
- The audience, of course, is different. But the PR tools overlap in both cases. These two areas can easily complement each other, as, for example, happened with the anthem, which became a godsend for both the club and the Litesound group.
You took up sports PR because you yourself were an athlete?
- Before Dynamo I worked with the Football Federation. They urgently needed my services to sell tickets for the match, which they didn’t want to sell. I agreed to try it, and that experience was successful. Subsequently, we collaborated more than once. I came to Dynamo already knowing what was what. And it was in Dynamo that I realized that I had found some niche of my own, which I would like to occupy.
- Dynamo, artists … Do you have time for yourself?
- Work takes up almost all of my free time. I work seven days a week.
- And you don't even have time to go to FIFU?
- It happens, and in "FIFU" I can play. It's hard not to play when you have an eight-core laptop … In fact, I also try to devote the maximum of my free time to my friends, and, in principle, it is impossible not to rest at all. I really appreciate my friends, there are not very many of them, but each of them is very dear to me.
Are they artists or athletes?
- A little of all. I have a very good relationship with Sergei Shtanyuk, with businessman Vitaly Novikov, who gives me valuable life advice. My good friend is singer and composer Roma Belov, singer Tasha, singer Natana. I appreciate the people who surround me, I value much more than the financial component in the relationship.
Could you make PR to a good person for free, without your fee?
- Could. Easily.
How do you get on with the opposite sex?
- Today I am a free person in this regard. Bye. But it was not always so. I was recently vacationing in Italy, where over dinner I talked to a very wise man who told me the following. Girls can be compared to shoes. You come to buy a new pair of shoes, try them on, everything suits you, buy. Then you walk around in it for a while, and it starts rubbing your legs. That's when you realize that, probably, this is not your pair. So I want to say that over the past years, my legs were constantly rubbed and the calluses were very painful.
- That is, the love experience was unsuccessful?
- Not that unfortunate … I made the mistake of mistakes, let's say. My feet had suffered a lot in seven years and I decided to buy better shoes.
What kind of person are you?
- Fair. Like now. I am for the truth. Sometimes kind. If they treat me well, I will respond in kind. And vice versa.
- To a certain degree.
In which?
- In big.
Do you have bad habits?
- I'm perfect. (Laughs)
What can make you very worried?
- Well, for example, the fact that I crashed the car this weekend. In the trash. Experienced a little. I called a friend who calmed me down. I realized that the car will be repaired or a new one will be bought.
What can break you to a tear?
- Sometimes I watch videos on the Internet. Today, for example. I watched a video in which a drunken man sprawled like a swan on the asphalt, laughing to tears. And in general, lately I have only been on the positive. I don’t smoke anything, don’t think, but that doesn’t prevent me from being positive. Recently, we positively rode home in a limousine (just when I crashed the car), laughed heartily, positive rushing.
Don't you want to return to football as a player?
- I was in Italy in the summer, accidentally met a football agent who offered me to go through a screening in one club. For the sake of interest, I came to run with the guys, and as a result I was offered a good contract for three years. But I am in no hurry to return to football yet, because I found myself in a slightly different field, everything suits me now. Football is the past, even though I play on a team of artists.
Do artists generally make money in our show business?
- Yes, few. The main thing is that I earn.
Is it difficult to get under your wing?
- The artist should be interesting to me. If a person does not suit me, I refuse to contact him, no matter what money they offer me. Sometimes, in order to suppress the importunity, I sent … So it was with one artist, who after working with me felt like a star, although I knew what she was. You can make an artist out of anyone. Even out of me. Incidentally, I also sang one song, which is called "for me …". She has appeared in hundreds of collections in Russia. I had six gigs with this one song. And, I want to say, it was tin, in the shoes of an artist I was so uncomfortable and disgusting. I had such a state as if I were walking around the Sahara in a fur coat. Then I realized that I had to leave the stage, not just leave, run away. Everyone must do their job.
- Earn a couple of million dollars.
