• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, December 15, 2009

Count the Census Bureau among the advertisers in February's Super Bowl. The agency is using the platform to nudge its huge audience to fill out forms for the 2010 count.

The Bureau's participation in the game comes a decade after it ran a spot in the 2000 Super Bowl.

The Feb. 7 game on CBS comes soon after the Census kicks off a $300 million-plus outreach campaign. And importantly, just a few weeks before the Bureau begins disseminating its questionnaires.

The Super Bowl offers a chance to swiftly reach a massive amount of the U.S. audience. Last year, 151.6 million people -- about half of the U.S. population -- watched at least a portion of the game. On average, the game was seen in 48 million homes and viewed by 98.7 million people.

The Bureau's marketing campaign in 2010 will stretch across multiple media and a slew of languages.

The TV portion will debut on NBC's broadcast on the Golden Globes on Jan. 17.

The Bureau will unveil its creative Jan. 14 at an event hosted by CBS sportscaster James Brown, who will be part of the network's broadcast team at the Super Bowl in Miami.

The Census has a much larger budget to promote participation in the counting than it did in 2000, when it had $167 million for paid advertising.

Since 1790, the government has conducted a counting of its citizenry every 10 years -- looking to get an accurate tabulation on how many people live in the country and where. The counting is used to determine how many House seats each state gets and some distribution of federal aid money.

Much of the Census Bureau's marketing campaign next year will include grassroots efforts. The agency will be sending 13 trucks around the country on a "Road Tour." And the tour will stop in Miami in conjunction with the Super Bowl.

Word that the Census was considering purchasing a Super Bowl spot was reported in October by Ira Teinowitz on TheWrap.com.