• by Karl Greenberg , June 10, 2015

The Golden State Warriors lost to the Cavs in Game Three of the NBA finals Tuesday night, but the two stars of the teams, Stephen Curry and LeBron James, respectively, are both winning on the multiple endorsement front. Nielsen has put together comparative data on how their fans shop and behave as consumers.

The company's N-Score finds 65% and 53% of fans of James and Curry, respectively, consider the favored athletes successful.  

Nielsen Talent Analytics, the firm's intelligence arm that links brands and audiences to endorser personalities using a panoply of Nielsen data, finds that fans of LeBron James are 30% more likely than the average American to plan to switch mobile carriers in the next 12 months. They are prospective car owners, 5% more likely to plan to buy a luxury vehicle in the next 12 months and 26% more likely to be on the hunt for a full-size car. 

The talent analytics arm of Nielsen used the organization’s N-Score survey to build data around fans of the two players, per a statement on the data. Those fan profiles were linked to Nielsen’s HomeScan, Nielsen Scarborough and Nielsen SLMS solutions to build insights on actual and reported purchases, behaviors and intent. 

Curry’s fans are 16% more likely than the general population to purchase deodorant. They are 18% more likely to buy athletic apparel, and 14% more likely to buy men's business clothing. The study says Curry fans are 25% less likely than the general population to have purchased life insurance. James fans are 14% more likely to have visited a fast food restaurant ten or more times in the last month. 

Per Nielsen, fans of the NBA over-index vs. the general population, and fans of the other three major pro sports in: planning to buy wireless service in the next 12 months (27% more than the general population); intention to buy a new vehicle within that period (54% over the general population); and having visited a fast food joint at least ten times in the past month. NBA fans under-index in having life insurance and having had a beer in the past week.