Creative Branding Makes Cents In Florida

Cintas Tollbooth Uniforms Inspire SunPass Campaign

ORLANDO , FL -- When the Florida's Turnpike was looking for a way to promote the idea of friendly and approachable toll collectors, they literally gave the shirts off their backs to find the answer. For many years, drivers on the Florida's Turnpike have been greeted by attendants who look more like Jimmy Buffet than toll collectors. Fun, Florida beach shirts have been the preferred uniform style at the Turnpike since 1995, so when the organization needed a concept to promote "SunPass," Florida's version of pre-paid, electronic toll collection, they didn't have to travel far to find it.

"Our uniforms have always grabbed people's attention," said Florida's Turnpike Director of Communications and Marketing, Kim Poulton. The now familiar pattern is being used in some creative ways to educate drivers about the value of the State's SunPass system, a pre-paid, automated toll pass designed to minimize backups and let drivers travel through toll plazas without stopping. In addition to the Turnpike's marketing materials, the shirt print can even be seen emblazoned from bumper to bumper on 18 state vehicles.

"Uniforms can actually make a trip through the tollbooth an experience rather than an inconvenience," says Mike Wallner, Marketing Manager for Cintas, the nation's largest uniform service provider and the company that supplies the Florida's Turnpike with its specially designed uniforms. "This is a perfect example of how uniforms not only create identities, but enhance a company's branding affect when selling products," he said.

"We've had many people ask our tollbooth attendants if they could buy a shirt, so we've put them on sale in the gift shops at each of our service plazas along the Turnpike," says Kim Poulton. Maybe it's true that people love a person in uniform. Now it appears they love a marketing campaign in one as well.

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Florida SunPass Vehicles

Florida SunPass Uniform Shirt

About Cintas
Headquartered in Cincinnati, Cintas Corporation provides highly specialized services to businesses of all types throughout North America. Cintas designs, manufactures and implements corporate identity uniform programs, and provides entrance mats, restroom supplies, promotional products and first aid and safety products for over 500,000 businesses. Cintas is a publicly held company traded over the Nasdaq National Market under the symbol CTAS, and is a Nasdaq-100 company and component of the Standard & Poor's 500 Index. The Company has achieved 34 consecutive years of growth in sales and earnings, to date.