"The standard of living is better here than in any city"
Today they sit behind their desks in their agency and reflect on the past with a smile. "It was not quite so easy finding clients at the start“, they say. Since then, it has become clear that they made the right move. Their appearance reflects their success – one could call it relaxed professionalism. Their roles are clearly defined: Tobias is the trained bank specialist, the organiser, the man who carries out the practical tasks. With a neat haircut, slightly tanned skin and jacket. Frank – the creative one, the artist, the photographer. With designer glasses, a white shirt, suit trousers and bare feet in sandals.This is the story of their return home to Saxony-Anhalt.
The Platte brothers grew up in the small town of Klötze, in today's Altmark district of Salzwedel. They went their separate ways after completing their school leaving certificates and both left Saxony-Anhalt.
The older brother Frank went to Berlin following the fall of the Wall to study German philology and art. But he didn't stay long in the large city. He returned to Altmark and worked for a while for the local newspaper. But he soon moved on. "During this time I prepared myself for the entry examination for the University of Applied Sciences Bielefeld“, he explains. He was set on Bielefeld as the photography school there had a very good reputation at the time.
He was accepted and studied communicative design with the focal points of photography, film and graphic design. He earned money as a journalist and photographer in Rostock to finance his studies on the side. "Altmark? This was no longer on the agenda at this point“, he says. Hardly surprising that Frank looked beyond his own nose and expanded his horizons. He travelled to Asia, the Orient and the USA and met lots of creative, interesting people. The doors to the shiny advertising agencies opened to him.
When he finished his studies, he asked himself what he wanted to do. Perhaps an advertising agency in Hamburg, for example? Anything is possible.
A family celebration was held in Klötze. Frank met his brother Tobias, and by this point he had also seen and experienced quite a lot of things – outside Saxony-Anhalt: he had completed his training to become a bank specialist in Wolfsburg and then spent seven years in Braunschweig, finally working in an advertising agency in Stuttgart. "It was actually really nice living in Stuttgart“, he explains. But the moment came when he wanted a change. His brother Frank said: "I was fed up of the hoighty-toity world of the shiny advertising agencies.“
It was at this moment that the brothers decided to return to Klötze and develop something together. "There were no jobs in the creative sector“, they said, "so we thought we would create some ourselves.“ What follows sounds like a rags-to-riches story, at least to some extent. They started up their advertising agency Plattform - a symbol for hauling ideas out of the depths - in 2000 in their grandmother's living room in Klötze. Armed with their computers, the brothers sat at their grandmother's table, made phone calls, built up a network and made people aware that there was now an advertising agency in Altmark.
And it worked. Today, medium-sized companies from all over Germany, institutions such as the Chamber of Industry and Commerce and state ministries or pharmaceutical companies such as the neighbouring ARTESAN Pharma make up some of their customers. They employ five full-time members of staff.
Three years ago, the Platte brothers also started a new project together with the Fraunhofer Institute Magdeburg. They research the mixture of the real and virtual world as a marketing tool – called Augmented or Mixed Reality. With success. In 2011, they founded the Mixed Reality Marketing AG, abbreviated as MXM. An international start-up company with completely new technology. A large group may develop from this – which is what the brothers are currently working on.
"It still mainly happens via the internet. As a creative person, my friends and contacts are spread around the entire world“, says designer Frank. "I can work internationally from the province.“ In addition, he travels once a month but always returns to Saxony-Anhalt. Frank Platte lives in the direct vicinity on a farm with his wife and two young sons. "20 years ago I had never imagined living here again“, he says with a smile. But it was only when he left that he noticed how great his home was and how beautiful and inspirational nature is. His brother Tobias adds: "The air is clean here, my children can grow up carefree.“ He also has a wife and children. The Platte brothers are agreed: "The standard of living is better here than in any city."
Author: Anja Schlender
Contact:
Plattform Werbeagentur GmbH
Karl-Marx-Str. 13
29410 Salzwedel