It will run full-page ads in Bauer Media titles including Heat, FHM and Closer, as well as TV and online ads through a tie-up with 4Music. The aim is to get young people to sign up to the Electoral Register.
The campaign, which breaks next month, will also include the Commission's first ads on Facebook.
Agencies Farm, Glue and Experience have been lined up to work on the task, while WPP shop Media M4C, which was recently appointed as the COI's media agency, will handle the media buying.
The turnout at the last general election among 18- to 24-year-old voters was just 37%. Recent case studies show that 56% of this age group are not registered to vote in the next election, which must be held no later than 3 June.
The situation was described as ‘alarming' by Conservative MP Philip Hollobone in a House of Commons debate on voter registration, in which MPs welcomed attempts by the Commission to encourage young people to vote.
Sam Conniff, co-founder of youth communications agency Livity and UK Social Enterprise Ambassador, also backed the Commission's strategy.
‘I'll be glad if it has learned lessons from before, because engaging with young people has not been done well,' he said. ‘The world has changed. The view of democracy should be taken in that context. Social networking and new group mentalities mean that we need to do things differently.'
He has called on The Electoral Commission to demonstrate how young peoples' votes can make a difference.
In the run-up to the last general election, the Commission urged people not to sit on the fence and use their right to vote. Its activity centred on the website Aboutmyvote.co.uk.
It also ran a ‘Votes are power' competition in conjunction with MTV, which challenged 18- to 24-year-olds to devise a creative idea, for any medium or format, that would encourage young people to turn opinion into action.
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