Wildstone, Snitch join India’s Got Latent Season 2 as brands learn to play along with the joke

New Delhi: Two more brands have joined the growing list of sponsors on India’s Got Latent Season 2, as advertisers move beyond buying visibility and lean into the show’s unpredictability. Fragrance brand Wildstone joined Season 2 as the fragrance partner. Snitch, which was already visible in the first episode through the clothes worn by Samay Raina and Balraj Ghai, continued its association in the second episode. Wildstone had visible branding on the table in front of Samay and the panel of judges, including Chandan Prabhakar, Kiku Sharda, Balraj Ghai and Harssh Limbachiyaa. Snitch, however, did not feature there. The brand’s presence was limited to the outfits worn by Raina and Ghai. The first episode had already set the tone for the season with AI+ Nova Smartphone, Flipkart Minutes and Avvatar built into the show. AI+ Nova was the powered-by sponsor, Flipkart Minutes appeared as the quick delivery partner, and Avvatar came in as the protein partner. The Samay Raina-led creator property, which will run for 12 episodes, has carved out four sponsorship categories for Season 2. A Powered By sponsorship is priced at Rs 2.5 crore for the season, while category partnerships are pegged at Rs 1.5 crore. Brands can also buy episode sponsorships for around Rs 25 lakh per episode, with additional charges for customised integrations depending on the execution and visibility. India’s Got Latent is giving sponsors the same treatment as the rest of the show. Brand mentions are not protected from jokes. In many cases, the joke becomes the integration. At one point, when Raina began naming the sponsors, someone from the audience reacted with a loud “chhi”. Raina turned the moment around by saying he had to do it to compensate for the legal fees he had to bear after last year’s controversy. The moment captured how advertising works on the show. Sponsor mentions are not separated from the humour. They are delivered in the same tone as the rest of the episode. Wildstone’s integration also followed that pattern. Raina briefly forgot the brand before quickly remembering it and weaving it into the conversation. Instead of hurting the integration, the slip made it feel closer to the show’s natural rhythm. AI+ had already shown how far brands on Latent are willing to go. In one act, a performer deliberately broke an AI+ smartphone using playing cards. The product was not just placed on stage; it became part of the act, even at the cost of being destroyed on camera. Flipkart Minutes used a more functional route. When contestant Kapil Dinkar, a policeman, won Rs 1 lakh after his score matched the judges’ scores, the brand was integrated through a small game played by Raina. Raina asked him a question with four options: at what price was kiwi selling on Flipkart Minutes at that point in time? Dinkar chose the lowest price and won an additional Rs 50,000. The Flipkart Minutes bit worked because it made the price point part of the game. Instead of a standard ad read, the brand message came through the contestant’s win and the show’s own format. For brands, that is the bargain on India’s Got Latent. They get attention from a highly engaged audience, but they also give up some control. A sponsor may be mocked, forgotten, improvised into a joke or used inside an act. That is no longer a risk outside the deal. It is the deal. Brands returned to India’s Got Latent Season 2 knowing that the joke could include them. The show’s commercial model appears to be built around that understanding: sponsors get attention because they do not try too hard to behave like traditional sponsors. With Wildstone and Snitch joining the roster, India’s Got Latent is showing how digital sponsorship is changing for creator-led properties. The safest brand placement is not always the most memorable. Sometimes, the brand that survives the joke gets the strongest recall.