It started in Alabama, but can be played nearly anywhere in the Southeast now…it’s the Alexander Shunnarah billboard game! There are so many of his billboards throughout Alabama, Georgia and Florida, that you would be hard pressed to go more than a few miles without seeing one. So some inventive folks have come up with the idea of punching fellow car companions, not when they see one of Volkswagon’s beetle cars, but whenever they spot one of the Alabama lawyer’s billboards. Riders keep a tally of the Shunnarah billboards, and each board can only count for one player.
In Alabama alone, it has been reported that Shunnarah has his face on over 2,000 billboards, so you will most likely lose interest in the game before you run out of billboards to count! The 49 year old Shunnarah is based in Birmingham, Alabama…he manages a team of lawyers who take on mostly personal injury cases. Shunnarah says he wants to be the lawyer people turn to when they are injured in an accident, and the billboards are part of the strategy to do that. He says the billboards, in addition to television commercials, have sparked thousands of calls to his office each month. He says on an average Monday alone, the firm fields more than 1,500 calls.
It’s not just billboards he’s adding to the Gulf States, he’s also expanding his offices and staff. He’s added dozens of attorneys to new offices here in Atlanta, Gulf Coast in Alabama, Mississippi and Florida.
Shunnarah won’t talk about how much he spends on the ads, but he says he thinks the billboards and tv ads work well together in creating awareness for his firm. He says, “Someone can’t hire you if they don’t know who you are.” Despite the prolific ad campaigns, Shunnarah says his success boils down to how he treats his clients. He says, “Ultimately you have to service your clients properly…we are a plaintiff oriented firm…I have a tremendous passion for helping people, and we’ve helped a lot along the way.”