Hawkstone’s Farmers' Choir Is “a Movement, Not a Gimmick”

​The story of Hawkstone’s relationship with creative agency T&P was born in the most fitting way possible. As André Moreira, chief creative officer and Tom Sutton, head of &Accelerate tell it, “it didn't start in a boardroom with a PowerPoint presentation. It started, as all the best things do, with a pint and a problem”.

That relationship officially kicked off thanks to a personal connection between T&P chairman Johnny Hornby and Jeremy Clarkson. Having poured immense effort into growing his own spring barley, Jeremy wanted to turn the crop into something special. The problem, naturally, was that he was a farmer rather than a brewer.

When Johnny heard about this predicament, the initial idea was hatched over a drink. They connected with the master brewers at the Cotswolds Brewing Company, a sample of Jeremy’s barley was sent over, and a test beer was brewed. The result was undeniably good.

André and Tom view that very first pint as the foundation of the brand. “It was a three-way handshake, a sort of holy matrimony between the farmer (Jeremy, with his land and his story), the brewer (the Cotswolds team, with their craft and expertise), and the people who knew how to get it into your hands (T&P),” they note.

T&P stepped far outside the traditional scope of an ad agency. It took on the entire operation from the ground up. André and Tom explain, “They took on everything from the ground up: the core brand strategy, the design of the bottles and the brand identity, the creative for the ads, the media buying, and all the data and customer relationship stuff”.

“It was never a typical client relationship,” André and Tom note, “It was a partnership forged in a field of barley and a shared belief in a brilliant pint.”

With the partnership established, T&P needed a solid foundation for the creative work, which they found in a single, clear proposition: ‘Hard to Make, Easy to Drink’. André and Tom explain that the agency's “single-minded goal was to bring both sides of that equation to life in a way that was unforgettable and authentic”.

To visualise the ‘Hard to Make’ element without resorting to a standard, tired montage of tractors, the team decided to personify the effort. “The strategic foundation was to find the living, breathing embodiment of ‘hard work,’” André and Tom note. That led to the crucial decision to cast 40 real, working British farmers. “Their hands, their faces, their stories – they are the ‘Hard to Make,’” they say, representing the sheer graft and perseverance required before a single drop of beer is even brewed.

For the ‘Easy to Drink’ side of the equation, the creative execution had to elevate the entire concept. “We decided the choir couldn't just be a gimmick, they had to be surprisingly, genuinely brilliant singers,” André and Tom reveal. The farmers' stunning harmony served as the perfect metaphor for the product itself– a creative echo of a perfectly balanced, easy-drinking lager, proving that immense hard work can result in something beautiful.

Translating that strategy to a commercial shoot, however, presented an immense logistical hurdle. André and Tom admit that the biggest challenge wasn't the creative vision, but simply getting 40 working farmers from all corners of the UK into one field on the same day. Because agricultural lives are dictated by seasons and livestock rather than standard shooting schedules, the production faced entirely unique interruptions. “We had people having to leave mid-shoot because a cow was calving,” the agency pair recall. Ultimately, they describe the complicated process as a “beautiful, chaotic reminder” of the brand's authentic reality, joking that managing the cast was “harder than herding cats”.

To make the campaign truly cut through, T&P established a few non-negotiable rules for the production. While the authenticity of the cast was paramount, the final piece of the puzzle was the specific line the farmers would sing to express the ultimate reward of a hard day's graft.

Instead of playing it safe for broadcast clearances, the agency leaned into raw honesty. "The line couldn't be 'Gosh, that's good beer'," André and Tom state. "It had to be 'Fuck me, that's good,' because that's the honest, unfiltered reaction to tasting something exceptional". It also happens to be the kind of turn of phrase that Jeremy himself is known to deliver on ‘Clarkson’s Farm’.

For any traditional advertiser, submitting a campaign with a blatant profanity is a surefire way to get pulled off the air. But for T&P and Hawkstone, the resulting censorship was entirely intentional. "We knew it would get 'banned,'" André and Tom note. "That was the whole point".

This was a deliberate, strategic masterstroke designed to generate cultural friction. Rather than simply producing a commercial, T&P aimed to engineer a larger PR narrative. By committing to the ban as a core campaign strategy, the agency actively anticipated the pushback. "We planned for the rejection from regulators and had our response ready," André and Tom explain.

The calculated risk paid off spectacularly. By leaning into the controversy, T&P successfully transformed a rejected television spot into a widespread national news story. It shifted the conversation away from a standard product launch and turned it into a high-profile debate about censorship and backing the British farmer.

That deliberate strategy to champion the British agricultural community didn’t just win over adland juries; it ignited a genuine cultural phenomenon. While the campaign recently took home a Silver Lion in Entertainment at Cannes Lions, its most visible triumph was the choir’s historic victory on ‘Britain's Got Talent’.

For the team at T&P, this level of mainstream resonance stems from the campaign's stark contrast to the rest of the modern media landscape. "In a world of polished, meaningless marketing, the choir was a blast of unfiltered, joyous reality," say André and Tom. It provided a platform that was "true to the farmers, who finally had a voice," while perfectly embodying Hawkstone's signature wit and honesty.

Crucially, T&P's work connected with a broader national sentiment far outside the industry bubble. André and Tom point out that the campaign "tapped into a truth in the country – people are sick of bullshit". They note that consumers "crave authenticity," which elevated the activation far beyond a standard brand stunt. "The choir wasn't a gimmick, it was a movement.”.

When the group of agricultural workers took to the primetime stage, the public response validated the creative foundation the agency had built. "Winning Britain's Got Talent wasn't the reason for its success, it was the result of it," André and Tom explain. Ultimately, the project triumphed across both industry awards and public voting because, as the agency leaders note, "the nation saw what we saw – something real, something with heart, and something worth rooting for."

While the singing farmers captured the public's imagination, the choir also served as a crucial strategic bridge for Hawkstone’s wider marketing ambitions. It proved the brand platform could finally stand on its own, successfully broadening the cast of characters beyond its famous founder.

André and Tom readily acknowledge that Jeremy Clarkson's massive audience provided an “unfair advantage,” but stress that the agency didn't just use his platform to flog beer. Instead, they focused intensely on storytelling, treating the brand's social feeds as “the digital equivalent of the bar at The Farmer's Dog”. By consistently championing the rural community, T&P gave followers a reason to engage beyond the celebrity face.

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That community-led foundation ultimately paved the way for Hawkstone’s recent television debut during the World Cup. The new spot features farm hand Kaleb Cooper as an unlikely stuntman  diving in slow motion to save a dropped pint, while his life of farming graft flashes before his eyes.

André and Tom view this heroic execution as a physical manifestation of the sheer effort required to brew the product. Taking their core message to the nation's biggest broadcasting stage represents a major milestone for the business. "It's our graduation from a viral social media brand to a proper, national player that can own a moment like the World Cup.”