XOXO
#<UNK>, let me ---+ this is <UNK>.
I'll start with the ---+ just to give you a little bit broader context around the systems implementation we've been through here.
We had homegrown products that were ---+ they were old, they were brittle, and they created risk to our core business, and wouldn't scale to the growth that we want for our Company.
So, we've spent ---+ we spent a year planning and then implementing a series of systems that help us manage order entry, revenue calculation, commission payments, CRM for the sales force, among other pieces.
It's a ---+ it's the complexity of an organ transplant, and I think the team did a really nice job delivering it and rolling it out to the field.
It has two impacts, though.
One is, with any significant technology implementation like this, you're going to have some technology issues.
You're going to have some bugs.
And those impact productivity and can impact revenue for a limited period of time.
The second is that, for your team that is face to face with the customer all day, it's a significant change in the systems and the processes to which they're accustomed, and it takes time for them to become accustomed to the new system, and it affects ---+ it significantly affects productivity.
Again, for a limited period of time.
And this, for us, was probably about 2 months, give or take, of productivity that was affected.
So ---+ and as you know, the way our business works, we sell contracts today and then book the revenue over the next 12 months.
So, we don't feel any of the effect of that productivity here in Q1, but you're going to feel it stretch out through 2016, as <UNK> indicated earlier.
If that answers your first, would you repeat your second question.
So, just first on the systems, it's a multi-year process to get our systems where we'd like them to be, and we're always looking at every component of our systems.
Certainly the local system transition is a huge one for us.
And I think as I've mentioned on our call last year, we ---+ at least, we had actually already done a bunch of work to upgrade our national sales system.
So, those two together represent the majority of where you're having sales teams involved with systems.
As we move forward, we'll continue to look at all the back-end systems of ---+ that run the Company.
But those are the two big systems that touch our sales team, day in, day out.
Then I think your question is, if you're thinking about sizing the opportunity, if you took our media businesses and you amortized them all across all of the weddings that we touch, you're probably talking about $60 or $70 per wedding that we touch in advertising value, that we're able to generate for XO today.
If instead you were to think about the top categories at a wedding ---+ venue; band; DJ; gift registry; jewelry; travel and accommodations ---+ that's roughly half the spend around a wedding.
And those are the categories that you've heard us talking about the last few cycles here.
And if you can unlock transactional commissions from what is 50% of the spend in the wedding space, it's a significantly larger unit economic opportunity than media alone.
So, that's why you see us focused on this as a long-term exciting opportunity for the Company.
In terms of which ones we would tackle ---+ that which we've spoken about so far really is half of the spend around weddings, and has an awful lot of our attention right now.
And getting it to scale is going to take time.
For us, we continue to discuss our national advertising business as a solid performer, and one from which we want to continue to generate steady progress.
We don't expect growth from our national advertising business like the kind of growth that we'll get out of our transactional opportunities.
And so, I think what you're going to see here is, the team that came in 2 years ago has delivered really nice growth through superior execution in that business.
That team now, each year, is seeing tougher comps, and it's a little bit tougher to grow on top of those comps.
We have ---+ there's two important things happening this year for us, <UNK>.
One is that we're going aggressively after this local transactions and guest transactions opportunity.
And how well we're executed ---+ how well we're going to execute there, and how that opportunity will present itself, is going to become much clearer as this year plays out.
The second is that we set a target model that we want to hit for the Company.
We haven't gotten there yet.
So, we want to get to the target model and we want to have more clarity around our transactional businesses.
And then we want to come back and talk to our investors about what's next.
I would only add that it would be very boring for us to tell you that where we've gotten to ---+ where we'll get to in the second half of this year is sufficient.
We're going to continue to push, to grow this asset and deliver returns for our investors.
Thanks, <UNK>.
Generally speaking, SEO has continued to be a positive force for us.
As you know, we have domains that have a lot of credibility.
We are a Company that has content at its center, which means we're very good at creating that which search engines reward, because customers really enjoy it, and people like our products.
So, the ---+ generally speaking, the Google algorithm rewards good brands, with good content, that the audience sticks with.
So, for us, we don't ---+ I wouldn't tell you to expect anything different than what we've seen the last couple of years, in terms of the performance and the growth of our overall traffic.
I mean, just at a high level, our customers want more business, like all local businesses do.
We're working very hard to send them more business.
And when we do, they're very happy, and they reward us for it.
You've seen a nice correlation these last couple of years with our continued increase in leads to our local vendors, and products that support our audience as we [path] them to local vendors, coinciding with continued growth in the ---+ in our local advertising business.
So, I would say that, primarily, that is the fundamental conversation we're always having with our local customers, which is, they want more business and we want to bring them more business.
It's also a ---+ the primary motivation of our shift toward connecting our audience all the way through to a transaction so that we can always show our business partners the value that we're bringing them.
It was $52 million in Q1.
So, what you're seeing right now in our registry business is the ---+ we've made significant product improvements over the last couple of years in the three important steps of our registry business.
The first, attracting our audience and engaging them through wedding websites; the second, helping them and ---+ with the seamless creation of their registry; and third, helping their guests ---+ helping them connect that registry to their guests, or helping their guests find that registry so that they can buy the gifts.
In all three of those areas we're seeing very encouraging product performance, and it's driving a lot of this increase that you're seeing in GMV and this increase that you're seeing in our transactional revenue number.
No, not at all.
We believe that advertising as well as transactions are going to be value drivers for our local vendors.
If I ---+ if you were a local venue and I had you on the phone right now, <UNK>, I would be offering you a suite of products which includes premium preferred listings in the market that can put you at the top of the page and ensure that a larger audience finds you.
And if that's not the right fit for you, we'll also include a transactions-only storefront on The Knot, where we can still bring you audience and you can pay us on a per-transaction commissional basis.
We think this gives us a broader ---+ a longer-term ---+ <UNK>, this will give us a broader array of products that can more closely match the bespoke needs of each of our local wedding professionals, and help us to serve more professionals and bring more business their way.
Remember, we offer the media model, the paid listings model, or essentially all of the verticals that serve local weddings.
We've now introduced an additional option for venues where a venue can pay on a commissional base for transactions.
We have also ---+ through our GigMasters acquisition are able to offer bands, DJs, to a lesser extent photographers, and a few additional categories, the opportunity to list on GigMasters and to pay on a per-transactional basis.
But still, <UNK>, for this year, the business and the revenue is listings.
I want to make sure that I don't point you in the wrong direction there.
<UNK>, for us, we look first at whether or not we can deploy our shareholders' capital into organic investments that'll drive outsize returns for them.
The second thing that we look at is whether or not we can execute investments or acquisitions that will be accretive for our shareholders.
If we do not see opportunities in number one or number two, then it's not our money, it's our investors', and we will give it back to them in the form of stock buybacks.
