Hawkstone Pulls Off a Perfect TV Debut 

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TV debutant Hawkstone beer has a highly marketable story. It was launched in 2021 by celebrity Jeremy Clarkson on the back of his hit series Clarkson’s Farm, and is made using British-grown hops from that farm. It’s the kind of backstory any new brand would envy.

But it’s one thing having a great story and quite another making the most of it on TV. Plenty of celebrities and influencers have launched brands. Few have been huge successes. The star name alone isn’t enough. So Hawkstone and agency T&P have taken a different tack. Clarkson doesn’t appear in the brand’s name or visual identity. And while he and the other cast members of Clarkson’s Farm star in this ad, they aren’t its focus. Hawkstone is determined to succeed on its own terms, not just as an extension of a famous founder, and that leads to better advertising.

Hawkstone’s ad has a dual narrative – an entertaining, funny wrapper around an uplifting brand message. The framing narrative sees Clarkson and fellow Farm stars in a bar when disaster almost strikes – a pint of Hawkstone is falling to the floor. While Clarkson looks on aghast another drinker makes a desperate slow motion dive and saves it in the nick of time.

But as the pint falls we see a second story – the journey of the beer from hops to pint glass, with flashes to every part of the process on the farm and beyond. The message? “A year of graft in every pint” – Hawkstone beer is valuable not just cos it’s tasty but because of the work and care that goes into it from British farmers.

You can see the impact of the double narrative in the Test Your Ad Pro diagnostics, when we ask viewers for the type of happiness they felt. There’s a double spike both for Amused and Uplifted, two types very strongly associated with effectiveness overall. “It had a really epic feel” said one surprised (and pleased) viewer.

We tested the ad with two samples – a general population sample (as we do for all Test Your Ad reports) but also a sample of beer drinkers to see how Hawkstone performs with its in-category buyers. The ad is a strong performer even at the general level – a very strong 4.8-Star Rating for long-term effectiveness puts it in the top 3% of all UK beer and cider ads. And among beer drinkers that jumps even more dramatically, with a maximum 5.9-Star Rating and an exceptional short-term Spike Rating too.

These are terrific results for a new-to-TV brand, both within category buyers and the general population. And the Test Your Ad Pro report shows that Hawkstone’s strategy of featuring Clarkson but not centering the ad on him is working a treat – he’s not the top association with the ad, with “Beer” coming ahead of him in the general sample and the brand name “Hawkstone” just behind.

Overall Hawkstone’s ad is a masterclass in how to introduce a brand to TV, mixing humour, a distinctive message and a spot of patriotic feeling, alongside a famous founder who’s prominent but not dominant.