Hey hey Flux fam!

Here's everything you need to know today - in under 3 minutes.

Today's big stories:

🏉Crypto.com will sponsor the AFL and AFLW

📦Uber Eats launches a 'more than just food delivery' campaign

🥩Beyond Meat becomes the most-shorted stock

Oh and get this...

Hold on to ya comics, kids. A single page of artwork from a 1984 Spider Man comic featuring the very first appearance of Spidey's iconic black suit sold for a record $4.6 million.

You beauty! Crypto.com will sponsor the AFL and AFLW for the next five years

Background: Crypto.com is a Singapore-based crypto exchange. They've been around since 2016...but really hit the spotlight when they paid $971 million for the naming rights of the Staples Centre (home of the LA Lakers). It's now called the Crypto.com Arena.

What happened: Now, they've found their next branding op: the AFL women's league.

What else: Crypto.com is paying $25m to become the official crypto exchange of the AFL and AFLW. And it could become an effective way of closing the gender investing gap.

So what's the key learning?

💡The gender gap in investing means that women are generally less likely to invest than men. And this often puts women at a financial disadvantage over their lifetime because investing can be a huge wealth generator.

💡Women make up just 18% of online investors in Australia. And it ain't just traditional investing. Women are also lagging when it comes to crypto investing, making up just 23% of crypto investors in Oz.

💡But the good news? Women are getting into crypto at double the pace that men are...so it makes sense that Crypto.com would sponsor the AFLW, because they see women as a huge target market.

Uber Eats ain't just a food delivery service, ya got that?

Background: Uber Eats has primarily been a food delivery app...but more recently, they've been trying to branch out into groceries, alcohol and potentially anything and everything.

What happened: To change the way Aussies think about the brand, Uber Eats have done a massive marketing push. They've got big tennis pros Nick Kyrgios and Ash Barty to feature in an ad where viewers can scan a QR code...and pick how the ad ends.

What else: Scanning the code takes the audience to YouTube where Uber Eats shows off everything they deliver now...like lemons, honey, pens and even garlic.

So what's the key learning?

💡Interactive content is any content that requires a consumer to actively engage with it...rather than just mindlessly consume it. And when it comes to brand awareness, interactive content is like the golden ticket.

💡It's like a conversation between the audience and the company's marketing team. Think: polls, contests, giveaways, or a QR code the audience needs to scan.

💡Now, sometimes interactive content can flop (and become a really expensive waste of time)...but sometimes, it generates higher engagement rates than regular content. And higher engagement = more conversions.

Investors reckon Beyond Meat is past its used-by date, so they're shorting the stock like its 2008

Background: Beyond Meat is a LA plant-based meat producer founded back in 2009. In 2019, they became the first plant-based meat startup to go public. And this IPO was UGE. In fact, it was the biggest in the US since 2000.

What happened: Fast-forward 2 years, and the meat ain't as juicy. Beyond's shares have tanked around 70% and investors are now betting money that shares will fall even more.

What else: According to new data, about 37% of Beyond Meat's available shares are shorted. This means the company is now the most heavily shorted company on the Russell 1000 Index (aka the stock exchange representing the largest 1000 companies in the US).

So what's the key learning?

💡Short-selling is an investing tactic where investors bet that a company's share price is going to fall within a period of time.

💡It works like this:

1. The investor borrows shares (generally from a broker)
2. The investor sells those borrowed shares
3. If the share price drops like the investor expects it to, the investor buys the shares at a lower price
4. The investor gives those shares back to whoever they borrowed them from.

And voila, the investor earns the difference between the amount they sold the share for...and the amount they bought it for.

💡Now, 37% of all Beyond Meat's shares have been 'borrowed' so they can be re-purchased at a lower price. And given the plant-based meat industry declined 10 months in a row last year...it may not be the worst bet.