Every year, the entire nation comes to a stop to celebrate football’s ultimate event: the Super Bowl. Tickets sold out very quickly, and right now, as this blog post is being written, the very cheapest legit tickets available on the second market cost over $1,500. People who can’t make it into the stadium will be watching on television or social media. There were 111.5 million viewers last year, and this year’s totals are expected to exceed that.

Did you know some of these people are actually tuning in to watch the football game? It’s true – there are folks who more interested in watching the Seattle Seahawks take on the New England Patriots than paying attention to the real attraction – the over-the-top multi-channel marketing extravaganza that will be happening on Sunday, February 2nd.

It’s well known that the commercials shown during the Super Bowl are among the most expensive, well done marketing pieces many major brands do all year. But this year, we’re seeing NBC expand the impact and reach of these pricey commercials with an extensive multi-channel support package. One very interesting tactic is that NBC Sports will use their Tumblr page for the express purpose of sharing commercials the moment they’ve been aired.

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If you’re not familiar with Tumblr, this is a good occasion to discover it. Tumblr is a micro-blogging social media platform where users share images, video, and short text pieces. There’s more spaces for text on Tumblr than you’ll find on Twitter or Facebook. People tend not to go to Tumblr as often, but when they’re there, they stay much longer than they do on other social media platforms: the extended visits aren’t nearly as lengthy as those we see on Pinterest, but they are long enough to be of interest to marketers.

NBC Sports is using Tumblr as a showcase platform for a very specific type of content, which is likely to have a significant number of people interested in it for a short time. Interest will likely taper off shortly in the days after the Super Bowl, although it will never completely go away. We’ll be watching to see how NBC Sports uses Tumblr during this transition – and you should be too.

PS: Go Pats!