How the Pennsylvania Turnpike Rewrote Influencer Marketing
The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission Rewrote the Influencer Marketing Playbook
The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission has been doing something most brands outside the consumer product or lifestyle space would consider unthinkable: they’re leveraging influencer marketing for campaigns. And it’s working.
What makes this significant isn’t that it succeeded; it’s that a government agency looked at the playbook everyone follows and decided to write a new one.
The Strategic Challenge
Infrastructure is invisible when it works and frustrating when it doesn’t. That’s a difficult story to tell through traditional advertising alone.
Recently, the Commission needed to communicate complex operational changes like the rollout of Open Road Tolling, the benefits of E-ZPass adoption and exciting experiences like the Sideling Hill Trailhead and the train ride to Jim Thorpe. They could have dropped a press release, run a PSA or put up a billboard to convey the facts, but those mediums couldn’t create an emotional connection or demonstrate real-world value in ways that felt authentic.
More fundamentally, the Commission knew that they had to do something different to make a toll road feel relevant, modern and user-centric. After all, most people think of infrastructure as something they tolerate, rather than appreciate.
The Strategic Approach
Instead of talking at their audiences, they decided to show up within the content their audiences already consume and trust.
They partnered with niche influencers whose content naturally intersects with the moments when the Turnpike actually matters: road trips, outdoor adventures, spontaneous weekend plans. A food and travel creator demonstrated how E-ZPass enables the kind of last-minute exploration that makes trips memorable. An outdoor adventure influencer brought the Sideling Hill Trailhead to life as an actual destination worth planning around. And a food and lifestyle influencer took a fall-themed trip from Philadelphia to Jim Thorpe, highlighting the convenience of E-ZPass and Open Road Tolling.
These weren’t celebrity endorsements or paid promotional spots that felt transactional. These were moments that felt like a recommendation from a friend about how to make travel easier and more enjoyable. And the enthusiasm in the posts wasn’t artificial — these creators demonstrated real utility, convenience and genuine discovery.
The Results (and What They Prove)
The campaign delivered and then some. We’re talking about more than 1.7 million impressions, nearly 1 million in reach, 323,000+ engagements and an 18.64% engagement rate. And in case you’re keeping score, that’s more than six times the typical benchmark for creator content.
But while impressive, what matters more than the individual stats is that these were engaged audiences. The engagement rate alone proves that when you meet people where they are, with content that respects their intelligence and serves their needs, category conventions don’t matter.
What This Means for Every Other Brand
The Commission proved something most brands only theorize about: influencer marketing works when you’re willing to think beyond what’s typically been done in your space.
If it can work for a toll road, it can work for your brand. Full stop.
The question isn’t whether influencer marketing is appropriate for your industry. The question is whether you’re willing to be the first in your category to take that risk that turns into the advantage. The Commission didn’t wait for another agency to prove it could work. They created the proof; they set the standard.
Now the question is: who’s next — and who’s still waiting for permission.
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