The creative concept for the campaign builds on the Census' purple C logo. It has an origami theme and acts as a call to action, urging the public to "help tomorrow take shape".
The lead agency is Bray Leino, which won the account two years ago. The client is the Office for National Statistics.
Aimed at a nationwide audience, the 30-second spot will debut tonight during programmes such as 'Dragon's Den' on Dave and 'Coronation Street' on ITV1. It will run on a wide range of channels including ethnically-targeted stations.
It features a purple origami bus, football equipment and a hospital, illustrating the public services that are prioritised and planned using census information.
It will be followed by three more call-to-action TV ads that go live on 18 March when census questionnaires will be delivered to people's homes.
The third phase of the campaign begins on 7 April and reinforces the need for everyone in every area to complete their census form. Outdoor ads will support the work of census collectors who will visit households who have not responded by this time.
Partner agencies include MediaCom, design agency Elmwood, and PR agencies Four Communications and Linstock.
Bruce Hutton, chief executive of Bray Leino, said: "Not many briefs have a target audience of 'everyone' which is interesting in itself. Add to that the multi-cultural challenges and shifting fabric of the UK and you have a challenge that any agency would love to work on – as indeed have we."