Outdoor Brands is entering the grilling season full steam ahead on growth. It’s led by their strong brand portfolio of Pit Boss, Oklahoma Joe’s, and Charbroil, but they’re not just relying on their portfolio to do all the work.

They’re entering new product segments and retail channels. They’re also introducing more consumers to their brands at Costco Roadshows.

To add even more lighter fluid on their growth, they’re also expanding their agency model. Outdoor Brands has appointed The Variable as Lead Creative Agency and Acadia as Lead Media Agency for the 2026 season, while continuing its public relations partnership with Gear Communications, agency of record since January 2025.

Outdoor cooking is evolving quickly, and our brands are growing with it. We saw an opportunity to elevate how we show up in the market by aligning creative, media and earned communications into a unified system designed to drive consumer demand and deliver value for our retail partners.

Thomas A. Penner, Group President, Outdoor Brands, LLC

The Variable will lead modern creative development focused on building top-of-funnel awareness and accelerating retail conversion. They’re going to initially focus on bringing Charbroil’s 3-in-1 platform to life and evolving the Pit Boss brand.

Charbroil has been focused on cooking versatility across their product line. Between the Pro Series that can cook with gas, charcoal, and has a legit griddle to the completely unique Versa-Tile that offers a completely different cooking experience.

The Pit Boss brand continues to release new products at every price point that all stay true to the brand. There is also some data that suggests that they are the #1 brand for pellet grill and fuel sales.

The Variable has done good work with Outdoor Brands through the years. They worked on the Charbroil brand refresh, which I think really updated the look of the products and packaging.

I also have always enjoyed interacting with The Variable. A behind the scenes fact about them is they’re the reason that I became involved with The BBQ Central Show. This website was still in its infancy, but they believed in what we were doing and thought to make the introduction.

Acadia will oversee full-funnel media strategy and investment across national, digital, DTC and retail media networks including Amazon, Walmart, The Home Depot and Lowe’s. Their mission is to ensure media efforts are optimized to connect awareness directly to performance and measurable sell-through.

In today’s world with all the headwinds on consumer products, performance marketing is as important as ever. It’s an area that more companies in outdoor products are focused on.

Gear Communications will continue leading earned media strategy, product visibility and innovation storytelling. They’re an important piece of the puzzle to strengthen brand credibility and amplify momentum across the portfolio.

They’ve done a great job with getting the word out about Outdoor Brands. I’ve worked with them since at least last summer and they are always nice to deal with, prompt, and provide key information about what’s going on at Outdoor Brands.