Our Story
Like all other interesting ventures in the history of mankind, Breakthrough too had a very humble beginning. Breakthrough is the story of innovative ideas and everyday miracles. We came into existence on a shoe-string capital of just `2500 at Bangalore, India in the winter of 1998. In the beginning it was just a dream, a prayer and loose bunch of creative talents getting together in the evenings to work out of the Cubbon Park and the Indian Coffee House at M. G. Road in Bangalore. Kalakaumudi was our first account. We launched Kalakaumudi Diary with the campaign ‘Open your heart, once a day’ and launched ourselves in the branding industry. ‘Good morning, Mumbai’ Kalakaumudi Daily campaign for the first Malayalm daily to be printed in Mumbai was the second campaign. We tried to open up shop in Kochi, Kerala in 1999 but failed to furnish it for want of money. In 2000, we opened our first office at Trivandrum, Kerala. The rest, as they say is history. We still retain the same logo as it was used from the beginning. The brand typeface used from 1998 was Goudy Oldstyle BT. It was changed to Futura in 2018. To begin with, the brand line was, ‘God. Creativity. And Brand Building.’ It has been altered to include ‘Business Solutions’ as well in 2018. Today, it reads as ‘God. Creativity. Brand & Business Solutions’. Since inception Breakthrough is focused on building brands and scaling businesses for Neighbourhood Markets and Local Businesses. Today, we focus more on Market Shifts that is disrupting the Neighbourhood Markets and negatively impacting the profitability of Neighbourhood Businesses – a malady that is storming the local neighbourhood business landscape. Breakthrough is India’s first strategy-focused brand and business solutions company providing end-to-end solutions for neighbourhood markets and local businesses. The purpose of our existence is to create successful businesses.
The detailed chronology of Breakthrough is done to give courage and inspiration to entrepreneurs to start an enterprise, however small they are. If Breakthrough can, anybody can.
1998
- Breakthrough began at Bangalore with a prayer and a dream as an idea of a flat and fluid organisation – no office, no fixed space of any kind, no rules and no paraphernalia.
- Lawrence P. Jacob happened to be the keystone for the company’s existence and all the inspiration was given by B. Jayakrishnan, Binu Thomas and Gigeev G.
- The name ‘Breakthrough’ was picked by Breakthrough’s first client Sukumaran Mani, Chief Editor of Kalakaumudi out of the 13 names given to him. ‘Bullseye’ was his second choice.
- Launching the first edition of Kalakaumudi Diary 1999 became the first project. All the pre-press expense at Comart, Bangalore was borne by T. R. Vinaykumar. The diary launch was done in November 1998.
- The logo was designed pro bono by Vinayrajan of Enterprise Nexus directed in the finalisation phase by Sivan, Creative Director, Ogilvy & Mather.
- Art Direction of the first campaign was done by Vinayrajan and the photography was done by Narayanan. The entire work was done in Bangalore.
- Breakthrough’s first business card was printed with the name Manju Mathews.
1999
- ‘Open your heart, once a day’ the brand idea for the Kalakaumudi Diary became a popular thought.
- ‘Good morning, Mumbai’ campaign for Kalakaumudi Daily was launched, and it helped the daily become the largest circulated Malayalam News Daily in Mumbai. It was the first Malayalam Daily to be printed out of Mumbai and hence the ‘Good Morning Mumbai’ campaign as it reached people in the morning unlike competition. The ‘Good Morning Mumbai’ became very popular in the nation after the Bollywood film ‘Lage Raho Munna Bhai’ was released in 2006, as it was a popular line in the movie.
- Breakthrough rented the first office space at the first floor of G8, Panampilly Nagar, Ernakulam-682036, but could not open it for lack of funds and left it after 3 months.
- Breakthrough wins 3 Kochi Ad Club awards with no regular employees. The entry fee was paid by late Micheal K. Joseph and the award was received by Sojan T. Sebastian at a function at the International Hotel on MG Road, Ernakulam.
- Even without an office, Rakesh, BFA joins as the first employee as Visualiser.
- Breakthrough started hiring a computer centre at night from 8 pm to 6 am for `500 per day twice a month and started completing client design work for the month in these 2 days. The finalisation was done out of DTP Centres.
- Till 1999, all work was done out of Bangalore.
2000
- Breakthrough opens shop at the ground floor of Prof. P. A. Alexander’s residence at No.19, Mar Ivanios Nagar, Trivandrum occupying a corner of George Chacko’s bedroom.
- The first computer was bought for over a lakh of rupees at an annual interest rate of 72%. Lawrence P. Jacob gifted a black cat UPS for the computer.
- Neelambari, a women’s magazine was launched for Kalakaumudi. The name was changed to Snehitha after two quarters.
2001
- The Travancore Heritage was launched with the strategic position ‘The only resort in Kerala where time stands still’ on December 11, 2001 starting a long association with its architect T. M. Cyriac. Breakthrough went on to position almost half a dozen resorts for T. M. Cyriac later.
2002
- Breakthrough opens its first full-fledged office at Eswaravilasam Road at Trivandrum on July 15 on the first floor. It was inaugurated by Smt. T. T. Kunjunjamma. The ground floor was occupied by Socio-Economic Unit Foundation.
- Flat structure gave way to hierarchy. Attendance Register was introduced.
- Taj at Varkala and Deedi came in as two new accounts.
- Authentic Books was launched.
2003
- Vrundhavan, a pet project of Laxmi Machine Works (LMW) Coimbatore was launched.
- Sarathy comes in as a new account.
2004
- Veejay Properties a construction contracting company was repositioned and Breakthrough was recognised for the innovative creative campaign.
- RVM was launched as a builder with its first project Cloud 9.
- Skyline Builders Trivandrum account moved to Breakthrough from TBWA Anthem.
- RVM and Skyline moved to Breakthrough after understanding the power of the Veejay Properties campaign
2005
- Launched brand SFS with the strategic thought of ‘My Home. My Life.’ The new thought from the modern housewife’s perspective redefined the builder communication in Kerala and established SFS as a power brand in Kerala.
- Launched T&U, a three star resort in the heart of Munnar town for MMJ.
2006
- Launched Ginger in Kerala – the budget hotel from the TATA group. Breakthrough was briefed to launch the brand IndiOne. Later the brand name was changed to Ginger.
- Elephant Court resort was launched at Kumily with the position ‘Life in Wildlife’.
2007
- Bhima Madurai was launched on the International Design plank – the brand moved out of the purity plank for the first time in its history.
- GM was re-launched in three southern districts of Kerala with Deedi as the new dealer.
- Over the Hill was launched as a boutique resort.
2008
- On April 18, Anju Manoj inaugurates the new Breakthrough Office at Kesavavilasom – a hundred year old residence cum office of the Dewan Peshkar of H. H. Maharaj Sree Moolam Thirunal Rama Varma who ruled Travancore Kingdom between 1885 and 1924.
- Malayala Manorama Metro was launched in Trivandrum on June 12.
- Vivanta by Taj was launched on September 1.
- Worked with Taj to rebrand into Vivanta by Taj on the strategic thinking of Landor, London. Breakthrough did the implementation in most hotels in South India. The regional India language typeface selection for most states in South was done by us.
- Afras Academy of Business Communication was launched at Technopark, Trivandrum. It happened to be the first project involved by Shashi Tharoor in Kerala to develop skills required to place people in the global markets. Soon after, he contested the Lok Sabha elections from Trivandrum constituency and went on to be a towering personality in Indian politics.
2009
- Launched the campaign for Bhima that took the Indian jewellery industry by storm. The campaign was, ‘The largest jewellery store in India is now at Trivandrum.’
- Positioned EVM Group on the idea ‘Future is our business’. It helped them position themselves to win the Volkswagen and Nissan dealerships in Kerala.
- Launched Volkswagen in Kerala.
- Started working with Taj Gateway Hotels in Kerala.
- Launched Turtle on the Beach, the second five-star property at Kovalam.
- Launched S P Grand Days.
- Started working on Kollam Supreme, one gram gold.
2010
- Implemented the rebranding of Taj to Vivanta by Taj on a strategy done by Landor, London.
- Started working on the Babas account.
- Launched Yentha.com as a complete neighbourhood portal at Trivandrum.
- Launched One & Only, a furniture brand.
- Big News, a midday malayalam newspaper was launched on August 17.
- Le Pondy, a three-star resort in Pondycherry was branded and launched.
2011
- Bhima was branded and launched at Adoor. The jewellery association objected to the campaign.
- Bubble Café the most prestigious restaurant inside Taj at Marine Drive, Kochi was repositioned and relaunched.
- Bone Cancer Foundation was branded and launched.
- Zafran, the restaurant at Park Plaza, Bangalore was positioned and launched.
2012
- Vedhika was positioned and launched as Kerala’s first designer fashion store from Kerala.
- Started working on the Malabar Institute Of Medical Science (MIMS) in Kozhikode.
- Bread Factory at Kowdiar was launched on October 29.
2013
- Started working on the Kerala Tourism account for the southern most state of India - Kerala.
- Positioned and launched Kofiland at Kumily, Kerala.
2014
- Started working to reposition MSand account.
- Started working to reposition Poabs Tea in Kerala.
2015
- Launched Bhima at Attingal with the pet name ‘Attingal Bhima’ after 100 days of competitor opening up shop in the town.
- Repositioned Bhima at Nagercoil, Tamil Nadu.
- Repositioned Bhima at Marthandam, Tamil Nadu.
- Launched a Bahrain-based construction company as a new builder brand as Kerala’s first international builder.
- Repositioned Parthas Trivandrum, one of the most popular textile brands in Kerala.
2016
- Launched Bhima at Salem in Tamil Nadu.
- Launched Bhima at Pathanamthitta in Kerala.
- Launched Daily Fish, the first packaged fish sold online in Kerala at Kochi.
- Repositioned Kriztle as an International Bath and wellness products brand.
- Renamed Supreme Corporate brand as Supreme Food Company and fixed its Brand Architecture.
- Repositioned Brand Nutrifud on the gifting platform.
- Repositioned all restaurant brands of Supreme Food Company.
- Launched Supreme Supermarket at Kannanallore on August 19.
- Launched and positioned Upper Crust at Trivandrum in the premium restaurant space. It became one of the first high street restaurants in Kerala to be successful on a regular street.
- Branded Spaces was done for Upper Crust, Trivandrum.
2017
- Launched Urbanscapes, the new brand of Bhima in the builder industry.
- Repositioned Heather a construction company with over two decades of experience as a builder.
- Repositioned Amset, a brand in sanitaryware in Kerala with over three decades of lineage.
- Launched Amset One as the first Tile Retail Store brand in India to eliminate product branding from the store.
- Branded Spaces was done for Amset One.
- Launched Subhiksha Fertilizer brand for the Indian market as a whole.
- Repositioned SUT Pattom, one of the first super-speciality private hospitals in Kerala after it was acquired by the Dubai based B. R. Shetty group.
- Launched Specially For You brand as a premium gifting brand from Nutrifud.
- Branded and launched Central Residency at Thampanoor, Trivandrum.
2018
- Artech is repositioned as the Leader Brand in the builder industry in Kerala.
- Launched Supreme Supermarket at Karikode on October 10.
- Chai Chai is repositioned as a Street Food brand focusing on health and hygiene.
- Branded Spaces was done for Chai Chai.
- Azad Star is launched and positioned as ‘Kerala’s unique experience in Travancore cuisine’ on May 10.
- Branded Spaces was done for Azad Star.
- Candie Treats brand is launched in the packaged food category.
- Repositioned Sprinkle salt for the Indian market starting with a new package.
- Branded Chai Street as a Street Food brand for Supreme Food Company.
- Branded Spaces was done for Chai Street.
- Launched Supreme Home Delivery at Kollam.
- Launched Carewin as a brand in the education sector.
2019
- Launched Supreme Food Company as a corporate brand in the food industry in the Kochi market.
- Launched Upper Crust in the premium restaurant category in the Kochi market on February 11. Launched Supreme Bakers in the Kochi market on February 11.