AOL CoolAge partners with the country’s prestigious IITs and IIMs

Jan. 31, 2012 - PRLog -- CoolAge the online and mobile-web product launched by AOL for Indian colleges has entered into a long-term partnership with IIMs and IITs for being the online and mobile media partners for their respective college fests. As part of the partnership between AOL CoolAge and IIMs, IITs, AOL CoolAge will be conducting various events during the fests at the campuses such as blogging competitions, battle-of-bands, literary events, case studies and photo calls at their innovative kiosk. AOL will also provide its mobile and web platforms to these institutions to enable them to market and drive awareness of the overall festivities and news of their campuses to all parts of India and also internationally.

As part of the on-going partnership, AOL CoolAge recently presented ‘WILDFIRE’ the Battle-of-Bands” event at “Springfest”, IIT Kharagpur. Audience, which numbered in thousands of students at the Tagore Open Air Theatre sent SMSes to the AOL shortcode 51516 to vote for their favourite band. College bands from various parts of India, that performed live on stage, interacted with the audience and requested them to vote. The top three bands that made it to the finals were DSAT, Turnkey and Family Cheese.

Yohan Marshal, Homi Rustomji and Apoorva of ‘Family Cheese’, a blues, jazz, funk and rock ’n roll band from Chennai, bagged the Wildfire students’ choice battle of the bands award with "DSAT" from Bangalore emerging runners-up. As media partners for “Springfest’, AOL developed an innovative microsite for IIT Kharagpur that had all the buzz and happenings of the campus.

The site is http://www.coolage.in/event/springfest2012

Down south, AOL CoolAge signed up IIT- Madras for their college fest SAARANG. Some of the major events at Saarang included a show by the very popular duo Vishal-Shekhar and a live performance by Devi Sri Prasad (of the 'Ringa Ringa' fame). Apart from the rock show there were scintillating musical performances by renowned Vietnamese band ' Ngu Cung' and Thai band 'T-Bone' and a hip hop dance performance by dance troupes 'Spartanic' from Japan and 'Dawn Jay' from Singapore. All these events were artistically featured on http://www.coolage.in/event/saarang2012, which AOL developed for IIT Madras.

This year CoolAge is also conducting literary events such as blogging competitions at colleges and will give prizes to the best student bloggers across the nation.  This will also provide long term job opportunities for the selected students to become writers for CoolAge. The blogging competition is open to students from all colleges.

The two other major college festivals that AOL CoolAge has developed microsites for are IIM Bangalore and IIM Ahmedabad featuring the best of the best from previous years’ Unmaad (IIM-B) and Chaos (IIM-A). These include articles, videos and pictures of artistes, events and pro-nites.  ‘Unmaad’ which means ‘crazy’ is the annual festival of IIM Bangalore and will feature Kailash Kher. Looney for Toons is a competition to create the ultimate comic strip, the street plays which will feature hot favourites Lady Shriram College and the well established – BSOR – the inter college Business School of Rock from AOL CoolAge are some of the main attractions and all this can be found at

http://www.coolage.in/event/unmaad2012/

In the western city of Ahmedabad, AOL CoolAge creates the hype and hoopla for CHAOS 2012, the festival of IIM Ahmedabad. Shankar, Ehsaan & Loy, Sarod players Amman and Ayaan Ali, DJ Suketo, Higher On Maiden (the official tribute band for Iron Maiden) are some of the attractions to look out for. For all these updates, pictures and videos one can check out the microsite of Chaos 2012 –

http://www.coolage.in/event/chaos2012

Earlier, AOL CoolAge signed up IIT Bombay and played host to the Romanian band AKCENT and conducted the Superfan contest where several AKCENT fans got to meet the band in person and receive autographed merchandise.

About CoolAge
CoolAge is a web, mobile product and platform that allow college students to publish articles, stories, pictures and videos of all the campus activities that happen in their respective colleges. CoolAge is also an online magazine for every college and brings together all these colleges under one website, enabling the students to read about other colleges’ activities across India from anywhere in the world. More than 250 colleges across India including IITs, IIMs, LSR, NLS, St.Stephen’s, BITS, NITs, MCC, Xavier’s, DU, Ethiraj, Stella Maris, MIT, Mount Carmel, Jyoti Nivas, St.Josephs, National Law School are on CoolAge. AOL has sponsored and conducted mega events at college fests such as Cul-ah at Mount Carmels, Mood Indigo at IIT Bombay, Springfest at IIT Kharagpur, Oasis at BITS Pilani, Tashi at LSR, Chaos at IIM Ahmedabad, Unmaad at IIM Bangalore, Echoes at IIM Kozhikode and many others.

The editorial teams from colleges, prolific student writers, and students with a creative streak, have signed up on the platform to cover campus activities, news, buzz and events from their colleges. AOL CoolAge empowers students from each of the colleges, trains them on AOL processes, editorial & publishing technology, mobile and online smart tools to manage their work and is mentored by AOL subject matter experts. Interns are also provided opportunities to attend workshops, seminars and events along with AOL’s management team. These students are also paid a monthly stipend. Here is what the students say:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DlJrlAAi5Y&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.coolage.in%2F2011%2F11%2F19%2Fa-cool-tribute%2F&feature=player_embedded



And the battle of the bands video from National Law School of India made by CoolAge

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O60j50I1Al0&feature=player_embedded

For further media queries, please contact: RED Communications at 080-4121 9509 or at 9980188938