In tough times we need ideas more than ever before. New ideas are the rocket fuel that can propel growth, ignite economic opportunities and improve our quality of life.

INSEAD’s Global Innovation Index 2009-2010, currently ranks Ireland as the 19^th most innovative country in the world. Ireland Inc is basing its recovery on forging a new smart economy built around innovation. Crowd-sourced competitions like Your Country Your Call have recently been launched to encourage citizens to generate new ideas and proposals that could transform Ireland by creating new jobs, new opportunities and a new way of thinking.

The IDA (Industrial Development Authority) have also invested €2m launching a global campaign with the positioning ‘Ireland – Innovation comes naturally’. It is designed to attract greater direct foreign investment and stimulate economic growth. To highlight this focus, the ‘I’ word has even found its way into our political lexicon. Minister Batt O’Keeffe is now fondly known as the Minister for Enterprise, Trade & Innovation.

So what can we do locally to become more of an Innovation Nation? As part of a new series, we’ll take a closer look at innovation and how we can apply it to our businesses and our lives.

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New opportunities or good-paying jobs won’t come from bailouts like NAMA. They come from start-ups. And where do start-ups come from? They come from smart, creative, inspired people who are willing to take risks and not handouts.

So if you’re considering starting your own business – or looking for ways to expand an existing one – here are three time-tested strategies you can implement to fast track growth and gain a competitive edge.

1. Discover an untapped niche that’s ‘hot’

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In celebrating St Patrick’s Day last week, advertising agency Leo Burnett developed a great tactical outdoor campaign for McDonalds in Chicago.

This execution was placed on the banks of the Chicago River, which is dyed green each year in celebration of  St. Patrick’s Day.  A perfect way to generate brand awareness and promote McDonald’s seasonal ‘Shamrock Shake’ in a fun and creative way.

This got us thinking as to why local Irish advertising agencies do very little to tap into celebrating our National Day. After all it’s a perfect opportunity to get your brand noticed and generate great buzz on social networks and other media.

Have we just become too blase about St Paddies Day? Are clients too risk averse or are our  local advertising agencies starting to lose their creative edge?

South Africa’s low cost airline and equivalent to Ryanair  Kulula.com, has been called off sides by FIFA for its recent guerrilla marketing ads.

“A multimedia campaign by the fun loving airline brand  featured advertisements with the headline, the Unofficial National Carrier of the You-Know-What, showing stylized pictures depicting the Cape Town stadium, soccer balls, vuvuzelas and a soccer player has been withdrawn following a letter from FIFA threatening the airline with damages.”

The offending advertisement (see above) was part of a campaign to communicate to passengers that it was not charging higher ticket prices during the World Cup.  The South African public and local media  have been very vocal about high prices from airlines and hotels in the run up to the soccer which kicks off in June this year.

Kulula has a reputation for irreverent, tongue-in-cheek marketing campaigns and the brilliant creative concept and headline “The Unofficial National Carrier of the You-Know-What” has certainly unleashed a media firestorm as well as terrific local and international awareness  for this upstart challenger brand. The response to the campaign has gathered momentum with people  discussing the advertisement and FIFA’S actions on Facebook and Twitter, and the issue has also been picked up by the national media as well as BBC News.

FIFA says the ad campaign breaks the law with “ambush marketing” by, “Seeking to gain a promotional benefit for the Kulula brand by creating an unauthorized association with the 2010 FIFA World Cup.” Like the IOC, FIFA is known to come down hard on any brand making even the slightest unofficial reference to their event.

The campaign, which is drawing an increasing following on the Internet, also challenged other carriers to keep their fares low during the World Cup. Kulula.com, for its part, broke the news to the country via Twitter, “Oh dear, letter from Fifa’s lawyers says we broke their trademark of the use of ‘South Africa’.

Kulula.com was not only told they could not mention the World Cup, but they also could not use the country’s flag or even pictures of the country’s new stadiums in their ad. They also could not use images of a “vuvuzela,” a traditional South African horn that has been used by rowdy fans at soccer games in the country for decades.

Although Kulula.com has stopped running the ad, a spokesperson for the airline said that another tactical ad is being designed, so we’ll need to watch this space! Whatever happens the online outrage it has provoked in South Africa toward FIFA, who seem to have trademarked everything South African, will probably earn this little airline some big marketing points in the run up to the World Cup Soccer.

Paddy Power has been forced to pull  its latest ad on TV after regulators feared it could cause widespread offence.

The spot, the third in a series of three ads created by the bookmaker’s new ad agency Big Al’s Creative Emporium, features four wheelchair-bound actors “doing a runner” on their bill from the ‘Star of Bombay’ curry house.

After the restaurant’s owner gives up on chasing them, a brand spokesman consoles him by explaining that while Paddy Power can’t get him his customers back, it can in some cases help get him his money back, thanks to its new Money-Back specials initiative, which gives customers the opportunity to have their stake, refunded even if their bet didn’t come through.

What do you think about the TV ad? Does it cause offense, and should it have been pulled.  Either way the ad, which has been launched to coincide with next week’s Cheltenham Festival, will  certainly create a buzz online and generate great PR for the Paddy Power brand.