• by Sarah Mahoney  @mahoney_sarah, December 18, 2008

It turns out that even though consumers are determined to do their holiday shopping by focusing on the best prices, they really do like ads that appeal to their softer side. The big hits this year, according to a new poll from the National Retail Federation, are spots from Target and Walmart.

The study, fielded by the NRF's Retail Advertising and Marketing Association and BIG Research, asked consumers to name their favorite ads, and 24.2% cited Target's spots, while 21.1% named Walmart. Best Buy, which recently launched an ad campaign featuring blue-shirted associates sharing their touching customer stories, was the third-most-mentioned chain, with 8.4%, followed by Macy's, with its heartstring-tugging "Believe" campaign, at 8%.

Almost one in five consumers--or 17.5%--say the specific commercials they mentioned motivated them to shop with a retailer, while 39% say they are already shopping there. Young adults are most likely to head to a store after seeing an ad they like (29.6%), with the 65-plus least affected (8.7%.) Women say they are more likely to be motivated to shop by these ads (19.2%) than men (15.7%).

The study's biggest news, however, is that overall, TV has less impact on shoppers than other media. Coupons are the big winners, with 44.6% of consumers agreeing that store coupons motivate them to shop at a particular store (50.6% of women and 38.2% of men), followed by word of mouth, with 32.3% (roughly equal for both genders) and advertising inserts 30.1% (33.7% of women and 26.3% of men). TV came in fourth, with 26.5% of respondents agreeing that it influences their store selection. Affluent shoppers are more likely than average to be motivated by coupons, inserts and word of mouth, and less likely to be swayed by TV ads.