The Real Mary King's Close: an £8,020 draw that paid for its own marketing

In March 2026 we ran a prize draw with The Real Mary King's Close, the underground attraction beneath Edinburgh's Royal Mile. It raised £8,020 from 607 supporters over 19 days, and The Herald, the Daily Record and the Edinburgh Minute all covered it. A TikTok about the draw passed 100,000 views, and paranormal groups, dark tourism pages and Edinburgh locals shared it on their own.

Most of the draws we run are for charities, where the money is the whole point. The Real Mary King's Close is a commercial attraction, so the coverage counts as much as the entries, and this page looks at both.

At a glance

• Organisation: The Real Mary King's Close, a commercial visitor attraction in Edinburgh, part of the Continuum Attractions group.
• Mechanic: Paid entry prize draw on Crowdfunder. Entries from £5, with a free postal route.
• Raised: £8,020 from 607 supporters, 12th to 30th March 2026.
• Average spend: around £13 per supporter, so most bought more than one entry.
• Prize: an overnight stay for 2 beneath the Royal Mile, the first sleep in the close for over a century, plus a private dinner after closing and access to special events throughout 2026.
• Press: The Herald, the Daily Record, the Edinburgh Minute, and more local and online coverage, none of it paid for.

How the draw works

Entry costs from £5 and the attraction keeps the money. Paying for a chance to win counts as a lottery in law unless there is a free way in, so there is a free postal route as well. Almost everyone pays, and the free route is there to keep it legal. Because it is not a raffle or a society lottery, there is no licence to apply for and far less admin.

The prize

The first idea was free entry for a year. We dropped it, because a season pass is not something the press or social media pick up.

We used the building instead. Nobody had slept in the close for over a century, so the prize became a night down there, a private dinner after closing, and access to the attraction's special events for the rest of the year. It cost them very little, because it is an experience they already run, given to one winner instead of a paying group.

That prize is the main reason the draw reached as far as it did. "Sleep underground in Edinburgh's plague street for the first time in a century" is a line journalists ran with and strangers passed on without being asked. Most prizes never get that.

What happened

We launched on 12th March through the attraction's own newsletter and social accounts, with a press release sent out by a PR agency. The Herald and most of the other coverage came in the first week. The TikTok passed 100,000 views, well above the account's usual numbers, and the paranormal and dark tourism pages found it for themselves.

Most draws are busiest at launch and tail off after that. This one built instead, with its best days near the end, and it closed on 30th March at £8,020.

What limited the result

People who reached the page entered, and that rate held for all 19 days. What held the total back was how many people reached it. We see the same on most draws: a good prize and a clear page will convert the people who arrive, and the size of the result comes down to how widely the draw is promoted.

Keeping the number in proportion

£8,020 in 19 days is a good result for a first draw with no paid promotion, but it will not change an attraction's year on its own. What came with it was the coverage, the reach and a mailing list that is bigger and warmer than it was before.

A first draw also makes the second one easier. The attraction now has a page that is known to convert, a team that has run a draw once, and journalists who have already covered one.

What to take from it if you run an attraction

1. The prize decides how far the draw travels. The strongest prizes are things you already have, offered in a way nobody can buy: the room nobody sleeps in, the gallery after closing, the ride before opening. When people repeat the prize to each other, promotion gets much easier.

2. The entries are only part of the result. The money is income. The coverage and the mailing list are marketing, and for a commercial attraction they can be worth several times the entries, as they were here. Weigh both when you decide whether it worked.

3. Reach sets the size. With the prize and the page right, people will enter. How many depends on how many see it, so use every channel you own for the whole campaign.

Sources

• Crowdfunder campaign page, "Win a Night at The Real Mary King's Close" (crowdfunder.co.uk/win-real-mary-kings-close). Source of the raise, supporter count, entry pricing and campaign dates.
• The Herald, print and online coverage, March 2026.
• Daily Record, online coverage, 19th March 2026.
• The Edinburgh Minute, campaign coverage, March 2026.
• The Real Mary King's Close social channels (TikTok, Facebook, Instagram), campaign posts, March 2026. Source of the public video view counts.