The highly anticipated Superbowl XLVI has finally come to an end, and I am proud to say that I was one of its over 8 million Canadian viewers – but only for the commercials.

Clint Eastwood does not approve.

Watching these interesting marketing campaigns and advertisements made me recall the fond memories of my favourite Superbowl commercials of all time – those of the Old Spice campaign.

The “Man Your Man Could Smell Like” campaign was a huge success, creating an enormous buzz while also being able to materialize the publicity into solid business results. The campaign was successful because of a multitude of reasons, a notable one being its aggressive and ground breaking usage of social media platforms.

Another very important aspect was the timing of the campaign. Although superbowl advertisements are notoriously expensive, the superbowl is also the most viewed program in all of the United States. If Old Spice hadn’t shelled out millions of dollars for superbowl airtime, not nearly as many people would have seen it and the campaign would not have acheived the same level of success…right?

Wait….those were Superbowl commercials, weren’t they?

Smells like them, man.

Although many seem to think so, the commercial never actually aired during the superbowl, but instead aired the day after. However, through the use of clever tactics and marketing “around” instead of during the superbowl, Old Spice was able to create that illusion while avoiding the horrendous price tag that comes along with the coveted superbowl air time.

This can be seen as a type of ambush marketing, which can actually discourage companies from bidding for the more expensive advertising slots when guerrilla tactics can work at comparable effectiveness and highly reduced cost. This could lead to, heaven forbid, a steady decline in the quality of actual superbowl ads. This year already I was slightly disappointed – many companies opted for the easy ways out.

Awwww....nevermind, I take it back. He's just too adorable.