New 2026 CSR Benchmarks Report

Brands are pouring millions into CSR ads that don't build trust

We ran 19 prominent corporate social responsibility ads through the ViewShift Persuasion Intelligence Platform to reveal which campaigns had the biggest impact on favorability, consideration and recommendation intent.

Our findings reveal a surprising disconnect between brand reputation and actual campaign performance across tech, retail, automotive, travel, energy, and finance - with specific insights on ads from Subaru, Starbucks, Delta, Shell, Google, Wells Fargo, and more.

We ran 19 prominent corporate social responsibility ads through the ViewShift Persuasion Intelligence Platform to reveal which campaigns had the biggest impact on favorability, consideration and recommendation intent.

Our findings reveal a surprising disconnect between brand reputation and actual campaign performance across tech, retail, automotive, travel, energy, and finance - with specific insights on ads from Subaru, Starbucks, Delta, Shell, Google, Wells Fargo, and more.

New 2026 CSR Benchmarks Report

Five of the 19 ads we tested moved favorability, consideration and recommend intent, but not brand trust.

→ 3 ads had no impact on the reputation metrics we tracked

→ 2 of the featured ads actually decreased perceived reputation

→ Subaru (the best performing brand) moved every metric significantly

→ Wells Fargo posted the second-best result, despite years spent defending its own trustworthiness

→ Category, budget, and brand history explain less of the variance than most teams assume

Highlights from the Report

Highlights from the Report

3 ads had no impact on the reputation metrics we tracked

2 of the featured ads decreased brand reputation 

Subaru, the best performing brand, moved every metric 

Category, budget, and brand  explain less of the variance than most teams assume

Launch campaigns that are already proven to persuade

If your CSR campaign hasn't been tested for persuasion and brand lift, then you don't actually know if it's building the trust it's meant to build. Your ads might even be having the opposite of their intended effect. 

ViewShift's Persuasion Intelligence Platform can show exactly where your closest competitors landed, and what's actually behind the ads that outperformed the rest.

And our CSR report will give you impactful insights that you can directly apply to your next campaign.

Launch campaigns that are already proven to persuade

What this means for your next campaign

Methodology

This report was produced through a randomized controlled trial to ensure the highest level of statistical significance possible. Respondents were randomly assigned to see a CSR ad or a neutral placebo, then were asked to answer a series of brand-perception questions covering five core persuasion outcomes — favorability, consideration, recommend intent, brand trust, and reputational resilience — an ad-clarity check, attitudes toward industry regulation, and 13 brand attributes spanning employee treatment, community impact, innovation, sustainability, diversity, product quality, and transparency

The difference in brand perception between the two respondent groups showcases the ad's potential impact on real-world customers. 19 ads were tested from 16 brands to a group of nearly 42,000 respondents. Each ad was served to between 915 to 1,542 treatment respondents per ad.The data in this report is backed by a 90% confidence level from ViewShift's team of research scientists.

This report was produced through a randomized controlled trial to ensure the highest level of statistical significance possible. Respondents were randomly assigned to see a CSR ad or a neutral placebo, then were asked to answer a series of brand-perception questions covering five core persuasion outcomes — favorability, consideration, recommend intent, brand trust, and reputational resilience — an ad-clarity check, attitudes toward industry regulation, and 13 brand attributes spanning employee treatment, community impact, innovation, sustainability, diversity, product quality, and transparency

The difference in brand perception between the two respondent groups showcases the ad's potential impact on real-world customers. 19 ads were tested from 16 brands to a group of nearly 42,000 respondents. Each ad was served to between 915 to 1,542 treatment respondents per ad.The data in this report is backed by a 90% confidence level from ViewShift's team of research scientists.