Case Study: Southern Cross Austereo boosts podcast search and subscribers with Elastic on Google Cloud

Southern Cross Austereo boosts subscribers by 20% with Elastic

Southern Cross Austereo (SCA) faced a challenge with its LiSTNR podcasting platform, where poor search functionality was leading to a high number of "no results found" errors and hindering listener growth. This issue risked losing users to competitors, especially during major events. To address this, SCA partnered with vendor Elastic to leverage Elasticsearch on Google Cloud to improve content discoverability and accuracy.

The solution implemented by Elastic involved migrating to a managed Elasticsearch service. This dramatically improved search accuracy, reducing zero-result searches by 5% and freeing SCA's DevOps team to focus on new features. The enhanced search experience contributed to a 20% increase in subscribers, bringing the total to 1.8 million. Elastic's platform also provides a foundation for future AI-powered features like personalized recommendations.

Southern Cross Austereo