Some regulars at Three Decker Diner order grilled cheese, cut four ways. Some order salmon cooked light enough to not show any color. But most get to skip the seemingly ever-present line that protrudes out of the door and down the block.

It’s the regulars who are part of the decades-old Brooklyn diner’s charm, something that’s impossible to manufacture. It’s why Gavin Compton, who became co-owner of Three Decker Diner last summer after its previous owners retired, decided to take over the diner instead of starting one on his own.

As Compton put it, you can make anything look old, but that doesn’t mean older people will come. “There’s no way you’re getting the ladies after church for 30 years unless you take over something,” Compton, who also owns New York coffee chain Variety Coffee, told us.

Still, the Greenpoint, Brooklyn, fixture underwent a facelift earlier this year. So far, the diner’s been rewarded with weekend lines around the block, articles, and an appreciation from a neighborhood that didn’t lose an iconic, if greasy, institution.

Read the full story here.—RB

From the delectable “Life Changing Chocolate Chip” to the celebratory “Sprinkle Party” cookies, Sweet Dani B is the specialty cookie shop creating beautifully decorated (and mouthwatering) cookies for all occasions.

Sweet Dani B’s tagline is, “Life is sweet. Spread the love.” And they certainly do. But growth is never easy, and as small-biz owner Dani herself put it: “The post-COVID small-business space is more cutthroat than ever before, especially in the bakery world.”

So how does this mainly DTC business keep makin’ dough amid inflation and competition? By using Mailchimp to alert customers to new menus, holiday specials, and monthly cookie classes.

“When we email blast out our holiday menus, we usually get a fantastic response. As of late, we often sell out of cookies before our own stated cookie deadlines,” Dani shared.

Get your own sweet setup with Mailchimp.

If there’s one photo-sharing app that emphasizes spontaneous photo sharing and being real, it’s…Snapchat. At least that’s what the company would like you to think.

At its NewFronts presentation, Snap executives repeatedly emphasized how “real relationships” with users drive “real influence” for brands. Snap President of the Americas Rob Wilk called Snapchat the “antidote to traditional social media,” later adding that it is where users can be their “truest selves with their closest people.”

The company’s pitch to marketers, featuring new ad products, comes in the wake of some marketing shake-ups and less-than-ideal quarterly results.

So what’s new? During the presentation, execs focused on Snapchat’s growing user base; daily active users grew 15% last quarter. It also announced new advertising formats, including:

• First Story, which lets advertisers buy the first ad slot users see between friends’ stories. Louis Vuitton and Warner Brothers were named as early adopters of the ads.
• Spotlight ads, which will appear in the app’s UGC-driven, TikTok-like Spotlight section, are aimed at helping advertisers work more easily with creators on the platform.
• The Snap Star Collab Studio, which will let advertisers find “the most relevant creators based on [their] goals,” produce creative, and manage deliverables with them, per David Roter, Snap’s VP of global solutions.
• Sponsored links in My AI, the app’s AI chatbot. According to Wilk, one potential example could be providing a user with a link to a local restaurant if they inquire about where to go for dinner.

There were some recent events that the presentation didn’t touch on, like recent leadership changes. Continue reading here.—KH

Amazon’s free, ad-supported streaming service Freevee is getting more premium programming.

More than 100 Amazon original shows and movies from Prime Video, including series like The Wheel of Time, Reacher, and The Summer I Turned Pretty, will migrate to Freevee, where they can be supported by traditional ad breaks, the company announced Monday ahead of its annual NewFront presentation.

The move will substantially bulk up Freevee’s content offerings as Amazon leans further into ad-supported video. A number of new shows are coming to Freevee, including new seasons of shows like the crime drama Bosch: Legacy, Judy Justice starring Judge Judy Sheindlin, and a new courtroom series from Sheindlin called Justice on Trial.

• Amazon’s total reach on its properties and across Amazon Publisher Direct, which lets brands place ads across publishers and services outside its ecosystem, totals an average monthly US audience of 155+ million, Colleen Aubrey, Amazon Ads SVP, ad products and tech, told advertisers packed inside Lincoln Center’s David Geffen Hall.

Age of ads: Amazon added VideoAmp and iSpot as streaming measurement providers to give advertisers more ways to measure the effectiveness of their ads. Freevee will soon roll out “brand storytelling ads,” which let brands tell sequential stories over the span of several ad breaks.

Play ball: Thursday Night Football will soon feature audience-targeting capabilities in which different viewer segments can be targeted with different creative, the company announced. Interactive video ads, allowing viewers on Fire TV devices to click a “send to phone” or “send to email” button with their remotes to get additional product and purchase information, are also coming to TNF.

In the black: Amazon is looking to cash in on Black Friday. The company will stream the NFL’s first-ever Black Friday game and will make it available for everyone—not just Prime members.—KS

There are a lot of bad marketing tips out there. These aren’t those.

No words: How will the Writers Guild of America strike affect the advertising industry? Digiday took a look.

Warning label: People who’ve designed AI shared their concerns about it.

Case study: Read how a company that sells pecan candy is finding success on TikTok.

Crushin’ channels: Wanna scale your ads and online selling across all channels? Channable can do that. Their all-in-one platform will help you boost sales and increase POAS. See for yourself.*

^{*This is sponsored advertising content.}

Stat: For the first time ever, Safari has more than 20% of desktop browser share in the US, according to StatCounter data posted by Joshua Benton. Google Chrome currently sits at 55%.

Quote: “I’m looking to reach tens of thousands of the right people, not millions”—Richard Beckman, president of soon-to-debut media company The Messenger, which is releasing an ad campaign timed to its rollout—and has an ambitious goal of reaching $100 million in revenue next year

Read: “Google promised to defund climate lies, but the ads keep coming” (the New York Times)

Catch up on a few Marketing Brew stories you might have missed.

• FTC continues to bang the drum about ‘unfair’ AI practices
• YouTube pitches Shorts at the NewFronts
• How Willa’s is competing with Big Oat’s marketing budgets