The Venue
Sky & Co is a rooftop cocktail bar in Miami's Brickell neighbourhood, operating Thursday through Sunday from 6pm to 2am. Capacity: 200 covers across the indoor bar area, outdoor terrace, and private event section. The venue opened in March 2025 and had been running for approximately four months before implementing VoqadoWiFi.
Average weekly throughput: 780–920 guests across four nights. Weekend nights (Friday and Saturday) account for 68% of weekly covers. The bar runs its own event programming — DJ sets, cocktail masterclasses, themed nights — approximately twice per month.
When owner Diego Fuentes first reached out to VoqadoWiFi, he described the same problem most nightlife operators face: "We have hundreds of people in here every week and absolutely no way to talk to any of them after they leave. Instagram is not enough."
The Setup
Sky & Co runs a TP-Link Omada network with four EAP670 access points — two indoor, two covering the terrace. The controller is an OC200 hardware unit, which Diego had installed when the bar opened for network management purposes.
VoqadoWiFi integration was completed in a single afternoon. The steps: 1. Omada SSID "SkyAndCo_Guest" reconfigured from simple password to External Web Portal 2. Portal URL pointed to the VoqadoWiFi portal generated for the venue 3. Omada API credentials (operator account) entered in VoqadoWiFi integration settings 4. Portal designed: black background, the Sky & Co logo, single line — "Join the Sky & Co inner circle. Early access to events, exclusive offers, and a free welcome cocktail on your next visit." 5. Mailchimp audience connected via API key with four custom tags: first visit date, last visit date, total visit count, day-of-week preference
The portal design was deliberately minimal. Email field only. Single checkbox: "Yes, keep me updated about Sky & Co events and offers." Submit button: "Get My Access." Total form fields: 2. Load time: 0.7 seconds.
The free welcome cocktail offer was a specific decision based on the venue's cost structure: a cocktail costs the bar approximately $3.50 to produce and retails at $18. Offering it as a return-visit incentive effectively costs $3.50 to drive a return visit that will average $65 in spend. Diego's comment: "That is the best marketing ROI I have ever seen and I used to run paid Facebook ads."
The First Three Weeks: Ramp Data
Week 1: - Total WiFi connections: 743 - Portal completions: 389 (52.4% opt-in rate) - New contacts added to Mailchimp: 389 - Welcome emails sent: 389 - Welcome email open rate: 63%
The 63% open rate on the first week's welcome emails is consistent with the VoqadoWiFi benchmark for new welcome sequences in nightlife contexts: the email arrives within 2 minutes of form completion, the guest is still in the venue, and the brand is maximally relevant.
Week 2: - Total WiFi connections: 812 - Portal completions: 441 (54.3% opt-in rate) - Cumulative list size: 830 (accounting for a small number of previous-week contacts returning) - First event email sent (Thursday night DJ event): 830 recipients, 51% open rate, 14% click rate
The Thursday event email produced 47 confirmed table bookings from the email channel alone — Diego estimated these would have been unachievable via organic social alone given the limited reach of the venue's Instagram at the time (1,100 followers).
Week 3: - Total WiFi connections: 891 - Portal completions: 496 (55.7% opt-in rate) - Cumulative list size: 1,326 - Re-engagement automation activated for contacts who had not returned after week 1
The opt-in rate increase from week 1 to week 3 is consistent with a pattern seen across nightlife deployments: in the first week, some regular guests who have visited before see the portal for the first time and convert at lower rates. By week 3, staff familiarity with the system and minor copy adjustments (Diego changed "free welcome cocktail" to "free cocktail on your NEXT visit" to clarify the offer) stabilise the rate at a higher level.
Ninety-Day Results
By day 90, the Sky & Co Mailchimp audience had reached 4,247 opted-in contacts.
Email performance across 90 days: - Total campaigns sent: 9 (including 2 event promotions, 3 weekly updates, 2 re-engagement sequences, 2 special offers) - Average open rate: 47.3% - Best-performing campaign: Friday night DJ event promotion, sent Thursday 6pm — 58% open rate, 21% click rate, 61 table reservations directly attributed - Re-engagement sequence (30-day lapsed contacts): 31% open rate, 18% return visit rate among openers
Google reviews: Before VoqadoWiFi: 3.9 stars from 43 reviews (accumulated over 4 months of operation). After 90 days of review automation: 4.8 stars from 187 reviews.
The review automation sent requests at 35 minutes post-connection (adjusted from the default 25 minutes based on Sky & Co's average drink service time — Diego wanted the first round to have arrived before the ask). Sentiment filter threshold: 4 stars. Of all review requests sent, 22% resulted in a completed Google review — above the platform average of 16%.
The impact on local discovery was immediate and measurable. Google Maps search impressions for "rooftop bar Miami" and "cocktail bar Brickell" increased 340% between month 1 and month 3 for Sky & Co's profile.
Instagram Follower Growth Correlation
Diego tracked Instagram follower growth alongside the WiFi marketing rollout. In the four months before VoqadoWiFi, Sky & Co grew from 0 to 1,100 followers. In the 90 days of the deployment, followers grew to 2,840 — a 158% increase over the prior rate.
The correlation is not coincidental. Event emails drove traffic to the venue; satisfied guests posted on Instagram; those posts drove discovery; the WiFi portal captured the resulting new guests. The email and social channels amplified each other, with the WiFi list as the owned foundation that made the amplification mechanism work.
What Diego Says
"The number I keep coming back to is that 47% open rate. I spent two years running restaurant marketing for other people using paid social, and we never got close to that. These are people who came here, had a good time, and actually want to hear from us. That is a completely different thing.
The Google reviews change was the biggest surprise. Going from 3.9 to 4.8 — I genuinely believe that alone justified the investment. We are in people's top-three results for rooftop bars in Miami now. That was not happening before.
If I had put the money I spent on Instagram ads in the first four months into VoqadoWiFi instead, I would have a better list, a better rating, and more Instagram followers anyway — because satisfied email subscribers post about you."
Key Metrics Summary
| Metric | Result | |---|---| | List size at 90 days | 4,247 contacts | | Average portal opt-in rate | 54.1% | | Average email open rate | 47.3% | | Best campaign open rate | 58% | | Google rating (start) | 3.9 stars | | Google rating (day 90) | 4.8 stars | | New Google reviews (90 days) | 144 | | VoqadoWiFi subscription cost | $49/month | | Estimated monthly email-attributed revenue | $4,200+ |
Sky & Co is now 6 months into the deployment. The list has grown to over 7,000 contacts. The Thursday event emails are a consistent 50%+ open rate. Diego has hired a part-time marketing coordinator specifically to manage the email programme — a hire he would not have considered without the list that WiFi marketing built.