The Forbes Article That Changed the Conversation
On November 30, 2024, Forbes published a feature by Renae Grégoire titled "Wi-Fi Marketing Essentials: Turn a Basic Utility Into a Profit Center." The article did something that years of industry white papers and vendor case studies had struggled to do: it brought WiFi marketing into mainstream business media, framing it not as a niche hospitality technology but as a legitimate growth channel comparable in strategic importance to loyalty programmes and social advertising.
The timing mattered. By late 2024, WiFi marketing had already been quietly adopted by thousands of venues across Europe and North America, but it remained largely invisible to the broader business press. The Forbes feature changed that, and for early adopters, it brought a welcome sense of validation. For the broader hospitality industry, it was a signal that the window for competitive advantage through WiFi marketing was closing.
What Grégoire Got Right
The article's central thesis — that WiFi is a utility that most businesses treat as a cost and that forward-thinking operators are converting into a revenue mechanism — is precisely accurate. Grégoire's framing of WiFi marketing as a "hidden profit centre" resonated because it articulates the core insight succinctly: the infrastructure is already paid for. The guest engagement moment is already happening. The data is already being generated. The question is whether you capture it or let it evaporate.
The article highlighted three specific mechanisms by which WiFi generates revenue: data capture for email marketing, real-time promotional display on the portal, and guest analytics for operational decision-making. All three are well-established in the implementations we support at VoqadoWiFi.
Particularly valuable was Grégoire's discussion of the email capture quality difference — the same point we have consistently made to venue operators when comparing WiFi-sourced lists to traditional acquisition methods. A guest who provides their email at WiFi login is, in her framing, "pre-qualified by the act of physical presence." This is an excellent way to describe what makes the data type distinctive.
Where the Article Leaves Room for More Depth
The Forbes piece is an accessible introduction, and necessarily so for a general business audience. But for operators who want to move from awareness to implementation, several areas merit deeper exploration.
The GDPR dimension is underweighted. The article is primarily written for a North American audience, and the regulatory environment for data collection in the EU and UK is considerably more specific than the piece suggests. European operators need a consent architecture, not just a signup form. The distinction between "getting someone's email" and "obtaining legally defensible marketing consent" is material — both for compliance and for list quality.
The channel integration question is not addressed. Collecting email addresses is only the first step. The compounding value comes from connecting portal data to email automation, segmentation triggers, and CRM systems. A venue that captures 200 email addresses per week but sends one monthly blast is leaving most of the value on the table.
The competitive window argument is stronger than the article implies. Grégoire frames WiFi marketing as an opportunity. For operators in dense urban markets — Amsterdam, London, Barcelona, Copenhagen — it is increasingly accurate to frame it as a competitive necessity. Venues that have built 18-month WiFi email lists are already running retention campaigns against customers their competitors have no systematic way of reaching.
What This Means for Your Venue in 2025
The Forbes article's publication, and the downstream coverage it generated in trade publications and LinkedIn feeds throughout late 2024 and early 2025, created a wave of interest from venue operators who had previously not considered WiFi as a marketing tool. That wave is still moving through the market.
The practical implication: the differentiation window is narrowing. Venues that implement WiFi marketing this quarter are entering a market where the practice is understood and gaining traction, but where the majority of competitors still have not acted. Venues that wait another 18 months will be implementing in a market where WiFi marketing is table stakes.
The Forbes framing of WiFi as a "profit centre" rather than a utility is the correct mental model. A utility is a fixed cost. A profit centre is an asset that generates returns. The WiFi hardware in your ceiling is already paid for. The question is whether the data it can generate is working for you or being silently discarded every day.
Getting Started Without Overthinking It
One of the more actionable takeaways from the Grégoire article is the emphasis on starting simple. The most common failure mode in WiFi marketing is not poor execution — it is non-execution, caused by over-engineering the setup before going live.
Start with: a captive portal, an opt-in form, an email platform integration, and a commitment to send one campaign per month. Measure open rates and redemptions. Iterate from there.
The venues in our network that are generating the strongest results are not necessarily the ones with the most sophisticated setups. They are the ones that started earliest and iterated consistently. The advantage is not in the tools. It is in the list size and campaign history you build over time.