I've seen the cake decoraters in Safeway tip the cake sideways and basically scoop the sprinkles onto the sides of the cakes.They also had a big drum to do this in so it didn't go everywhere.
I have always wondered about that as well. The one time I tried it I put the cake in a shallow pan and kinda threw sprinkles at the sides of the cake when the frosting was still very wet. The ones that didn't stick fell into the pan and I reused them The only problem with this method thoug was that i fould it was hard to get them even. I kinda ended up with patches of sprinkles. Any advice is welcome.
Here's a link to a site that shows you how to put some sprinkles on the side of a cake
http://community.webshots.com/album/276920554aKXZbm
If you look in my photos...I use sprinkles on almost all of my birthday cakes. I like to use the top of a rubbermaid container(the big ones) to keep the sprinkles from going everywhere.
Another thing that makes it SUPER easy is to use store bought frosting for the sides where the sprinkles will go. If my cake is going to be white I use pillsbury classic white frosting. You do one side at a time and sprinkle immediately after you smooth it on.
You will then frost you top and everything else in your normal frosting. It will work with regular buttercream. The trick is that you have to sprinkle right after you have put the frosting on the sides and use a thinned buttercream.
I hope that all was not too confusing! 
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