• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, November 5, 2015

In a move that extends its reach deep into the influential world of marketing-mix modeling, Neustar has acquired MarketShare for $450 million. The move is the second big acquisition made by Neustar since 2013, when it acquired Aggregate Knowledge, a leading data management platform for targeting digital consumers.

The deal solidifies Neustar’s position in the marketing data and analytics marketplace, and brings blue-chip marketers into its fold from MarketShare’s roster including MasterCard, Turner Broadcasting System, Intel, USAA, CarMax, and Twitter.

The deal also gives Neustar more visibility into big brands’ total marketing mixes, including the way they optimize and plan offline media and below-the-line marketing channels.

Although it has lost some steam to digital and so-called “multi-touch” attribution analysis in recent years, marketing-mix modeling is still a fundamental ways that big legacy brands determine their ROI on media and marketing spending, and it is often used as the basis for setting budgets for the year ahead.