Entrepreneurs dig up publicity

The entrepreneurial husband-wife duo behind People at Play, a construction equipment amusement park in Manatee County, are quite serious about marketing.

Their latest coup: a segment on the Today Show on NBC. Expected to air sometime in July, the exposure comes a few months after People at Play was featured in several other spots, including World News Now on ABC and A Gulf Coast Journal with Jack Perkins on WEDU. (See Business Review, Feb. 4.)

Jenna Wolfe, a features correspondent on the Today Show and a Weekend Today co-anchor, traveled to Bradenton in April to put together the segment. People at Play cofounder Alisa Bennett, a former public relations executive for the Ritz-Carlton, Sarasota, pitched Wolfe the story earlier this year.

Wolfe and her producer spent about six hours shooting the segment, says Bennett.

Wolfe interviewed participants who used the equipment that day and she also operated a CAT 315 Excavator under the direction of Jason Bennett with People at Play.

The Bennetts first thought of People at Play a few years ago, while they ran their other business, Bennett Contracting. That Bradenton-based firm specializes in site work and does about $3.5 million a year in sales.