Dive Brief:

• Reebok has launched a new iteration of its #BeMoreHuman marketing campaign, recruiting an A-list of popular women, including artists, athletes, entrepreneurs and activists.

• They include Gal Gadot, Danai Gurira, Gigi Hadid, Ariana Grande, Nathalie Emmanuel, Katrin Davidsdottir, Reese Scott, (founder of Women's World of Boxing), Shannon Kim Wagner, (founder of the Women's Strength Coalition), Jenny Gaither (founder/CEO of Movemeant Foundation) and Yelda Ali, (founder of Camel Assembly), according to the brand's website.

• The campaign is forged in partnership with agency Venables Bell & Partners, which has worked on #BeMoreHuman since its launch a few years ago.

Dive Insight:

It's likely a powerful campaign when Wonder Woman is just one of the formidable women touting your brand.

Reebok's decision to spotlight such a diverse set of famous and successful women, who seem unafraid to speak their minds, comes as the wider culture grapples with how to define feminism in an era of #MeToo, gender fluidity and political turmoil. All that presents both challenges and opportunities for marketing, but the demographic cannot be ignored; women represent a major, though so far largely neglected, segment for sports retailers, according to a report from Matt Powell, vice president and senior industry advisor at The NPD Group earlier this year.

Nike in recent months similarly announced a strong new focus on women, saying it's introducing "four new ways of thinking about sneakers for women," including expanding sizes of its most popular releases and more curated retail experiences for women in stores and online, though that has been undermined somewhat by reports of sexual harassment and worse by top male executives, who have left in droves.

Adidas rebooted its smaller Reebok brand two years ago, part of an effort to stoke sales through streetwear as well as performance styles. For the year, currency-neutral revenues rose 16%, reflecting an 18% increase at Adidas, which had double-digit sales increases in the running category as well as at Adidas Originals and Adidas Neo, plus high-single-digit sales increases in training. Reebok revenue rose 4%, driven by double-digit sales increases in Classics and low-single-digit growth in running. While the brand's international revenues grew at a double-digit rate last year, U.S. sales declined due to many store closures.

More recently, Adidas' recent growth was questioned by Wells Fargo analysts, who this week said that its flagging European sales and Nike's resurgence in North America could spell trouble for the number two sports gear retailer.