Client: Pontes
Services: Cultural Intelligence, Taboo Topics Protocol, Ethnographic Interviews, Netnography, Cultural Opinion Leaders Program, Surveys, Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis
When Pontes, Belgium’s leading crematorium group, prepared a €30M investment in a new farewell centre, they knew “business as usual” wasn’t enough. Partnering with Trybes, they used cultural intelligence, taboo-topic ethnography, and quantitative validation to uncover unmet emotional needs and future-proof rituals. The result: a blueprint for transforming not just funerals, but any stagnant industry - showing how deep human truths, cultural foresight, and co-creation can unlock meaningful, future-ready businesses.
“Will we spend the next 40 years doing exactly what we’ve been doing for the past 40?”
When faced with making the company’s largest ever investment in a new farewell centre for Antwerp, Tom Wustenberghs, CEO of crematorium group Pontes, felt it was time to move beyond the tired music, bad videos and uninspiring traditionalism of the funeral industry.
It wasn’t a reasoned conclusion. It was the perceived belief of a professional who knew in his heart: we’re doing this wrong. And he recognised that the window to make genuine change wouldn’t stay open forever.
The data seemed to contradict him. Net Promoter Scores for funerals consistently hit above 80%. Customer satisfaction surveys gave positive reviews. Yet Tom sensed his industry had become complacent, delivering the same standardised ceremonies without imagination. While the metrics looked good, he felt people deserved more than routine farewells during life’s most profound moments.
Tom felt the death care industry needed to be transformed, so he partnered with The Transformation Architects - the world's first transformative experience studio - and with Trybes Agency, an award-winning ethnographic research firm and TTA member, to reimagine death care from first principles.
Their ambition was radical: not just to tweak the customer journey, but to create emotionally resonant funeral experiences, grounded in timeless human needs and future-ready, to serve families into the 2030s and beyond. Ultimately, to lead the transformation of a stagnant industry, re-imagining products and services beyond current practices.