Social games company Zynga today announced several management changes today following a series of high-level executive departures in recent months. Mark Vranesh, chief accounting officer, was promoted to chief financial officer, and David Ko, previously Zynga’s mobile chief, was named chief operating officer. Vranesh succeeds David Wehner, who is leaving Zynga to take a senior finance position at Facebook. Barry Cottle, who had led business and corporate development, was appointed chief revenue officer, while Steven Chiang, formerly VP of games, was named president of games. The executive shuffle comes about two weeks after Zynga reported a third-quarter loss of …

Social data platform DataSift on Tuesday announced raising $15 million in a Series B funding led by Scale Venture Partners and including Northgate Capital and Daher Capital. Launched last year, the startup allows companies to aggregate and analyze historical social data from Twitter, Facebook and other social properties to gain insights on brands, businesses, financial markets and public opinion. "We have the world's best infrastructure in real-time, as well as historical processing of social data, and through our Series B funding, we now have the ability to take that infrastructure to the next level," said Nick Halstead, DataSift founder …

Only around one in five Web users say they notice the AdChoices icon, which is aimed at telling consumers about online behavioral advertising, according to research slated to be unveiled today by the University of Pennsylvania's Joe Turow.

A major change at MTV's most senior programming post:  David Janollari is moving on, and Lifetime and WB veteran Susanne Daniels is coming aboard. Daniels will have the title of president of programming of MTV; Janollari had been head of programming of MTV. After three years on the job Janollari decided not to renew his contract, according to the company. At Lifetime, Daniels was responsible for bringing on "Army Wives" and "Drop Dead Diva." Before that at the WB television network she was responsible for shows including "Gilmore Girls,” “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” “Dawson’s …

Starcom MediaVest Group has formed a partnership with ad customization platform Flite to power advertising that lets clients create and update ad content on the fly. Flite’s technology allows advertisers to see which types of ad content—text, photos, video or photo galleries—is working best and make changes accordingly during a campaign. “This new partnership truly enables brands to realize the promise of ‘brands as publishers,’ which has been often talked about but rarely realized,” says Lisa Weinstein, president, global digital, data and analytics at SMG. She added that the move signaled the agency’s further expansion into “native” advertising on behalf …

Swrve, which makes a mobile app optimization platform, has raised $6.25 million in new financing from Atlantic Bridge Partners and Intel Capital. The San Francisco-based company said it will use the funding to ramp up sales, marketing and engineering operations and expand its customer base. Swrve’s system is aimed at helping app and game developers improve install and monetization rates by running sophisticated A/B testing scenarios on the fly. It also provides analytics and audience targeting tools. Along with its optimization platform, Swrve today introduced an integrated campaign tracker, allowing game developers to measure campaign performance and return on investment …

TV networks are looking to stop another another over-the-top TV service -- Aereokiller, according to reports.  Networks filed an injunction in a California court against the service. Aereokiller, which streams TV station content over the internet comes, from the Alki David. David was the man that behind FilmOn, a similar service in which major networks filed a suit against, and won. The name of the service is similar to Aereo -- which in large part comes from funding from longtime media executive Barry Diller. Broadcast networks filed suit against Aereo. But earlier this year they lost initial efforts against the …

Barnes & Noble has kicked off a new TV campaign promoting its Nook HD and Nook HD+ tablets introduced in September. The new TV spot, already posted to the bookseller's YouTube channel, debuts tonight on The X-Factor, The Office, Glee, Scandal and The Voice.  Among other programs, it will also air during broadcast during broadcast of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and the American Music Awards. The "Share" campaign behind the Nook HD models will also include a presence on CNet this fall. The Nook commercial, developed with Barnes & Noble ad partner Mullen highlights the a new …

Mobile rich media provider Medialets on Wednesday announced landing $10 million in a third-round funding led by Greenspring Associates. That brings its total to date to more than $28 million. The company said the latest financing would be used to accelerate the growth of its premium mobile and tablet advertising platform. Medialets’ system is designed to provide a one-stop shop for mobile ad creation, media planning and buying, and ad serving and measurement across the range of mobile platforms, devices and browsers. Publishers including The New York Times, The Weather Channel and ESPN use Medialets to power their mobile campaigns. …

Long-time Publicis media chief Jack Klues -- one of the most powerful and highest paid media executives on Madison Avenue -- will retire as CEO of its centralized VivaKi unit at the end of the year. Klues, who will remain with Publicis Gorupe through the first half of 2013, will help oversee a repositionng of VivaKi, which to date has primarily serviced its founding Publicis shops -- Digitas, Razorfish, Starcom MediaVest and Zenith Optimedia -- to be available more broadly to other Publicis agencies and the market at large.