Universal Pictures rolled out the "Bruno" application to accompany the feature film and saw more than 250,000 downloads.

The Bruno application gives users the ability to interact with the movie and receive exclusive content associated with the film. Available on the iPhone and iPod touch, the application lets users get up-close and personal with Sacha Baron Cohen and his crazy character.

?The intention was to extend the Bruno brand and offer ways for people to engage and interact with him,? said Doug Neil, senior vice president of digital marketing at Universal Pictures. ?We let app users engage with Bruno via photos, ringtones, games and wallpapers.

?It was a way to bring Bruno close to his fans,? Mr. Neil said. ?We did some focus groups and we knew that Borat?s core demo was under 34 year old and mostly male and this target group is also using iPhones."

Bruno is the second in a series of films by Sacha Baron Cohen that are shot in a mockumentary-type style. "Borat," the first, was released in 2006.

Promotion of the application was helped in large part by social network powerhouse Facebook, where there is a large community of Bruno lovers.

Universal Pictures also promoted the application through a variety of mobile marketing tactics such as a mobile advertising campaign, SMS, a traditional WAP site and an iPhone-optimized Web site.

Mr. Neil said that there was a very quick adoption of the Bruno application.

?The app was a way to reinforce people?s interest in the film,? Mr. Neil said.

The Bruno iPhone application offers users exclusive ringtones, alarm clock alerts, games and soundboards, which feature Bruno?s most outrageous and flamboyant catchphrases.

The application has a Touch Bruno feature, in line with the Bruno character?s love for being manhandled.

By using the Touch Bruno feature, users can poke around to find Bruno?s sweet spot and then be rewarded with some Austrian dirty-talk, straight from Bruno himself.

Users also have the ability to upload a picture of themselves and Bruno-ize the picture, just in case they cannot quite get the fashionista?s look nailed down.

The Bruno application lets users check out the character's wide array of thong underwear by shaking the phone.

The Bruno application is available for free to download in the Apple App Store.

?We were happy with the results and owe a lot of the success to the custom created material that was for the iPhone app only,? Mr. Neil said.

?We are marketing films and we look at the iPhone store as a way of extending a brand,? he said. ?People are engaged and interested and the challenge with an iPhone application is making it stand out but when you have unique entertainment content there are opportunities.?