Step Challenge
View the case- Brand
- Samsung
- Year
- 2019
- Objective
- Product Launch
- Industry
- Tech & Telecom
- Mechanic
- Music & Rhythm
- Platform
- Installation
- Agency
- Antfood
- With
- Little Red Robot
Objective
Samsung needed to make Galaxy Watch Active's fitness and biometric tracking tangible on the crowded show floor of Mobile World Congress, where a slide deck or display case wouldn't cut through. Rather than pitch fitness through a gym-culture lens, the team built the experience around breakdancing, framing dancers as elite athletes and making a workout something a passerby actually wanted to try.
Solution
A visitor at the Samsung stand straps on a Galaxy Watch Active, which starts the session, then steps onto a step-sensitive LED floor facing a large screen showing a futuristic Galaxy-branded 3D environment. The screen and floor light up footwork drawn from a routine choreographed with breakdancer WaAakOne, and the player matches each step in turn. Landing a move correctly unlocks a new layer of a hip-hop track — a beat, a stab, a loop, built by sound studio Antfood — so the music grows into a personal remix as the session continues. Throughout, the watch buzzes in time with the choreography and displays live heart rate, step count, calories, and moves completed, mirrored on the big screen behind the player. The result plays less like a motion-mimicry game in the DDR or Kinect mold and more like a hip-hop instrument the player builds by learning real footwork.
- 1
At the Samsung stand, the player straps on a Galaxy Watch Active, which doubles as the game's controller and personal display, then steps onto a step-sensitive LED floor facing a large LED screen.
- 2
From the watch screen, the player launches the game and picks personal settings before starting.
- 3
Stepping onto the floor triggers a futuristic, Galaxy-styled 3D environment that renders simultaneously on the floor and the big screen.
- 4
The game demonstrates a breakdance footwork sequence, motion-captured from professional dancer WaAakOne, by lighting up the exact foot positions on the floor rather than tracking full-body silhouettes; the player repeats the sequence by stepping on the lit spots, and the floor reads each step as input.
- 5
Each correctly executed move unlocks a new layer of the accompanying hip-hop track — a beat, stab, or loop from producer Antfood — building up the music as the player succeeds.
- 6
The watch vibrates in real time to give haptic feedback on the player's steps, alongside the visual cues.
- 7
Throughout the session, the watch and big screen display live biometrics: heart rate, step count, calories burned, and moves completed.
- 8
The move set is calibrated to challenge players without embarrassing them, staying achievable for people with no dance background.
- 9
By the end of the session, the player has assembled a personal remix of the hip-hop track and receives a workout summary pulled from the watch.
