By Chris Lee

For almost a year between November 1827 to October 1828 Edinburgh was terrorised by the infamous Burke and Hare murders, in which 17 people were killed and their bodies sold for medical research.

To mark the launch of a movie on Burke and Hare due for release this year, the Edinburgh Dungeons decided to run an exhibition on the murders. To promote it, The Dungeons turned to search marketing specialist Tug to help out with its digital marketing strategy. NMK's Chris Lee caught up with Tug's managing director Nick Beck to learn more.

What is the Burke and Hare attraction?

Burke and Hare is an exciting new attraction, exclusive to the Edinburgh Dungeon. Using actors and stage sets, the gruesome story of the 19^th century murderers is brought to life. Targeted at Edinburgh visitors and school groups the attraction aims to entertain as well as educate. Interest is particularly high in the attraction due to the Hollywood movie launching this year telling the tale of the murderous duo.

How was Tug involved?

As The Dungeons' search marketing agency, Tug was commissioned to use creative search marketing techniques to increase visibility in the engines. This includes pay per click advertising (PPC), search engine optimisation (SEO) and social media optimisation (SMO).

How has social media been used to promote Burke and Hare?

PPC ads were created to be served for all Burke and Hare-related searches, driving consumers directly to info on the attraction.

SEO techniques were used to optimise articles and press releases around the launch.

SMO supported the campaign by link baiting the PR (public relations) across social properties as well as relevant blogs and forums.

What has the uptake been like directly as a result of social media and how did you monitor and measure that impact?

The online PR was released on 3 February 2010 and within a month it had 60,000 impressions and was read over 1,000 times. 

Within two days it was picked up by Google News and featured on the first page of Google for the key term "Burke and Hare" in the news results. News results, as well as blog posts, reviews, images and videos, can now be seen on the first page as Google now pulls the most relevant results from all areas. 

The online PR also had a positive effect on the keyword "Edinburgh Attraction", moving it from position 20 to position sixth in the search engine results over three months.