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Like so many other people, the pandemic caused Geonni Sigl to pivot and open her own agency. Five years later, Onni Creative is thriving as it works with movie theaters to create experiences to bring in crowds and expanding into digital brand activations and other offerings. 

Part of Onni’s mission is to lift up women and diverse creators. Sigl, who is also vice president for non-profit organization Women in Exhibition, joins GEMA on Wednesday, July 30, for EmpowerHer. Besides partnering with GEMA on the event, Sigl also will sit on a panel with other female entertainment marketing leaders to discuss maintaining mental health and life balance while still excelling in their chosen careers.

The edited interview is below.

Spotlight: Take us quickly through your bio and what led you to found Onni Creative. 

‍Geonni Sigl, founder and CEO, Onni Creative: I started my career in marketing and events, moved to LA 10 years ago. I couldn't find a job in LA – or a marketing job, I should say, and so I decided to go to school for interior architecture. Of course, as soon as I started school, I landed a job at Annapurna Pictures doing marketing. Later, I went to United Artists Releasing/MGM as director of in-theater marketing. After a number of years there, I felt like I was hitting a ceiling and then UAR/MGM was acquired by Amazon. When the pandemic happened, I jumped into starting a business. I had no intention of starting a creative agency, but here we are.

‍Spotlight: Did you finish your interior architecture degree?

‍Sigl: I did, with an emphasis in art direction for film and television. Prior to moving to LA, I had no idea about the film industry and had an interest in interior design. Once I started doing both film marketing and interior design, I realized that I could do production design and art direction. So, that's where I've landed.

‍Spotlight: What would you say Onni Creative’s focus is? 

‍Sigl: When I started the company, I envisioned we would be full-service art and production design, but the movie theaters and cinemas kept calling me back to the marketing side of things, and obviously I wasn't going to create a full-service art and production design agency overnight. So I thought, ‘I'll do some consulting for independent, small to mid-size theaters.’ 

When the pandemic happened, and everybody fast-forwarded with technology, I knew theaters were going to be further behind the curve when it came to technology and social media, so I started consulting at the same time that I was getting into art and production design. Both of those practices have sped up. In an ideal world, if I took off the founder hat, I would be more involved with experiential marketing and art and production design, but I’ve been doing marketing for several years, and I don't see it going away. 

‍Spotlight: How much are you finding that people are needing production design and set decoration in the world of entertainment marketing? Do you think people need those services more because they are producing more custom content for digital channels? 

‍Sigl: A lot of what we shoot is custom content or brand marketing for digital specifically. I just did something for Prime Video’s The Summer I Turned Pretty. They did a trailer launch campaign and party in New York City. They do a blue room with their talent and some still photography. I helped design out that set.

‍Spotlight: Onni Creative is partnering with GEMA on the EmpowerHer event next Wednesday, July 30. Why is supporting women a priority for you? 

‍Sigl: Women need to feel heard. They need to have visibility. They need to see themselves in others. It seems like such an easy thing – women supporting women. But until recently, these events and programs haven't really existed. I entered into film and entertainment at peak #MeToo, and it was so eye-opening. I had this big moment where I realized the position I had was hard to come by, and as a minority woman I have to support my kind and lift them up as I grow and develop my career. Our theme for the event is about maintaining mental wellness. I think we all realized during the pandemic how important it is to rest and recharge. 

‍Spotlight: You related to me that your father is Black and your mother is Pacific-Islander from Guam. As a person of color and a woman in the entertainment industry, do you think you’ve run into roadblocks? 

‍Sigl: It's impacted me throughout my life. Like I said, when I entered the industry we were at peak #MeToo, and I could feel that ceiling for women. I rose up to the level of director at the film studio, but whether it was intentional or not, you could see that there are ceilings for women and people of color. 

‍Spotlight: Do you think that post-#MeToo those things have improved at all? 

‍Sigl: I do. Have they improved enough? No, but I do think they have improved. It makes people think twice. 

‍Spotlight: The focus of the EmpowerHer event is going to be prioritizing health, wellness and mental health. I don’t want to steal that event’s thunder, but give me a little preview. As a woman who is running her own agency while raising an almost two-year-old, what are your thoughts on how women can manage it all? 

‍Sigl: I think we as women always figure out a way to do stuff. It’s hard for a type-A go-getter like me to ask for help. My natural take is that if I’m not doing it myself, it’s not going to be done. But I really had to learn how to delegate. I’m still learning. I calendar out time blocks and everything has its place. At Onni, we also try to keep Thursdays as no-meeting days. It’s really helped to have that one day a week where I can really focus. 

Also, I just try to give myself grace. Maybe there are three things I want to accomplish in the day, and then I have a long list of to-do's, but I don't get to them. Post-pandemic has really made me realize what's important. We're in entertainment, so it's not like we’re saving lives here.

‍Spotlight: Diversity also is a priority for Onni, How do you incorporate diversity into what you do?

‍Sigl: DEI for us is not an initiative or an approach. It's who we are as individuals and as a team. We're constantly networking and maintaining a vendor list of diverse small businesses or individuals. When companies come to Onni Creative, we're able to pick from that pool. If you're hiring Onni and you're hiring our team, this is how we do business. Whether you were trying to or not, if you’re working with us, you are going to get a diverse team. 

‍Spotlight: What is Onni doing to bring young, diverse people into the business? 

‍Sigl: We have a very robust intern program, which is really fun because it teaches us a lot as a small business and helps us grow, but then it's also giving back. I've hired some of the people who first interned for us. 

Any time someone reaches out and says, ‘I'm in school,’ or  ‘I'm just thinking about breaking into the business,’ I always try to take some time to talk with them and give them whatever advice I can. Whenever I'm on a panel or go to a panel, I always ask, ‘what would you tell someone who is young and perhaps diverse who is trying to break into this industry?’ I always ask other leaders this question because I want to report that feedback back to our interns.

‍Spotlight: That's a question I often ask as well. So I'm going to ask you, what would you tell someone who's young and diverse and wants to get into this industry?

‍Sigl: Keep an open mind, and don't expect to rise to the top so quickly. For me, even after being in marketing for several years and then going into art and production, I took PA jobs, I took set-dresser jobs. I took those lower roles so I could get in and really understand the different departments and work my way up. Don't be afraid to take those administrative jobs. 

When I started working in this business, I was insecure because I had a lot of experience doing other non-entertainment jobs. People would tell me that I needed to pick a niche and focus on it. But I’m so glad I didn’t listen to those people because all of the jobs I have had have led me to where I am today, and I wouldn’t have been able to start this business without that experience. Sometimes you have to take steps backwards to go forward. 

When the pandemic happened, all of a sudden people were saying ‘you have to be agile, you have to be able to pivot.’ I was really able to come into my own because I had all of these different skills. So learn everything you can. Keep an open mind. No matter what job you are doing, you’re going to take something away.

‍Spotlight: One thing that Onni does is help theaters do local marketing campaigns. You even have a blog that offers them some free advice. What sorts of things are you seeing theaters do that’s helping to bring audiences to the movies? 

‍Sigl: Streaming has undoubtedly changed the theatrical experience. People have FOMO, they want to get out there, and they want to experience the film on opening weekend before everyone else. They still want that community experience, and they want to be the first to see the film. We're competing with people's couches. If your film alone isn't going to be enough to drive people off the couch, it has to be an experience. We saw that with Barbie and Oppenheimer, and we're seeing it with other films. People need a reason, aside from just the movie itself, to go to the theater. 

I'm seeing a lot more, and I'm sure you are as well, popcorn and concession merch. We manufacture and produce those in partnership with the studios. I’m also seeing a lot more experiential marketing happening at local movie theaters. One of my goals and initiatives over the past year or two has really been to bridge the gap between the two sides of our business: art and production, and cinema marketing. That's experiential, right? 

We're doing a lot of specialty cocktail programs where we'll craft a custom cocktail that ties to the film, and then we'll do the art and production design for the content, and we'll create social media assets, like a digital menu board that theaters can show, on-screen assets before the film comes on or a lobby takeover. These were two sides of our business that didn't feel like they go together, and now they're blending more nicely. 

Theaters are creating events around nostalgic movies, like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which is celebrating its 35th anniversary this summer with nostalgia showings and pizza pop-ups. Clueless is having its 30th birthday and Jaws is turning 50. 

It doesn't have to be a new title to get people to want to go to the movie theater. You just have to make it an immersive experience. 

‍Spotlight: What sorts of experiential events are you doing at Onni?

‍Sigl: Back in 2023, we launched the viral Five Nights at Freddy's pizza boxes. We created these pizza boxes that were replaced in cinemas. The cinemas took their normal boxes and swapped them out with these, and they were huge hits, so we're bringing those back when the new film debuts in December. 

We will also have a specialty cocktail program in theaters for Nobody 2, which comes out in August. 

We also have recently partnered with Coca-Cola. They do concession campaigns a few times a year. We worked with them in partnership with Universal Pictures to put How to Train Your Dragon cups and popcorn buckets into theaters for the live-action version. When you're not in theatrical marketing, you don't realize all that goes into getting that cup into your hands and making it part of the experience. 

‍Spotlight: What have you learned since launching Onni in 2020? 

I think when you put out into the universe what it is that you really, truly want, it will make its way to you, but you have to be crystal clear on what it is that you want. And for me, that is lifting up women and people of color. I work with all walks of life, and I think it's important to be able to work with people from every culture. 

It's about getting clear, and then it's also speaking about what you want to people, whether that’s when you’re out networking or on social media, it's being able to openly talk about what you want. That way, when people come across something, they say, ‘this would be a good fit for Geonni and her team.’ You need to be really putting yourself out there, which is something easier said than done.

‍Spotlight: Usually at the end of these interviews, I ask ‘what’s the coolest creative thing you’ve seen lately?’ But I’m going to tailor this question to you: What’s the coolest art direction or production design you’ve seen lately?

‍Sigl: For fear of sounding cliche, I really love Wes Anderson. I love it because I like to be just so particular about details that nobody else cares about but I think those details are what makes stuff great.