Marketers are now equipped with a continuous stream of marketing and consumer insights, news, research and trends thanks to the iPhone.

The Marketing Forecast iPhone application by Ad-ology Research features U.S. economic trends, trending topics from Google and includes Twitter streams. The Twitter portion aggregates Tweets about advertising and marketing.

"Building an app is an effective way to help with brand positioning and brand awareness for Ad-ology Research," said C. Lee Smith, president/CEO of Ad-ology, Westerville, OH.

"We also found almost no apps developed for advertising and marketing professionals," he said. "To differentiate the Marketing Forecast app from those that simply read news, we focused on two things: going beyond the blogs and trade magazines to integrate comments from practicing marketers."

Ad-ology Research is responsible for the analysis of key marketing and advertising trends in more than 440 industries and what motivates end-customers. The company's research is used by more than 2,000 advertising agencies, media properties and product marketing departments nationwide.

Mr. Smith said the iPhone application takes news posted on Twitter, "focusing on forecasts and where the market is going to be tomorrow instead of on yesterday's news."

"Marketing is a very social business by nature," he said. "So integrating social networking was a must. Checking the Hot Topics from Google and Twitter Trends are also good ways to find conversation starters."

Ad-ology hopes to reach anyone responsible for advertising or marketing for a company or product, from ad agencies to brand marketers and small business owners.

"All of these people have to think weeks and months in advance to budget and plan for the future," Mr. Smith said.

There is no ad support for Marketing Forecast. It is free to download.

"The primary goal of the app was to build recognition of the Ad-ology brand," Mr. Smith said. "Any traffic driven to MarketingForecast.com or Ad-ology.com could result in revenue for us in the future from the purchase of our research reports or commissionable research projects."

To coincide with the applications launch, Ad-ology relaunched its company blog with the same name and graphics package as the iPhone component.

The application is only for Apple now, but there are plans to develop for other smartphones.

"Apple products, including the iPhone, are very prevalent among people in the advertising and marketing world," Mr. Smith said. "So we started here."

Creating the Marketing Forecast application as an extension of the Ad-ology brand is just what Mr. Smith said marketers need to be doing to reach more consumers.

"We often refer to the need for marketers to be present on at least two of the three screens - computer, television and mobile device," he said. "Collectively, this is where many North Americans spend most of their time with media.

"However, just flashing up a billboard on a phone is limited in its ability to associate a positive feeling with the brand being advertised. Providing useful content, a useful application or entertainment on a mobile device is considerably more effective."