Following the high court?s decision, Procter & Gamble made a Facebook rainbow with its products, saying, "Labels are for Products. Not People.? Similar product-packed tweets from Delta, Ben & Jerry?s, Marriott International and others showed the value of joining in on a conversation with an authentic voice by taking the conversation to a place that is personal to a product. 

?Brands are always looking to attract social buzz and one way to do that is to join in on conversations that their customer base is passionate about,? said Shuli Lowy, director of marketing for mobile for Ping Mobile. ?Many brands have done exactly that in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court?s monumental decision to legalize gay marriage. 

?A key component to fueling a social media campaign is creating a proper hashtag that can unify a social voice under a visible umbrella,? she said. ?If the hashtag doesn?t include brand specific text, marketers need to consider how the brand?s presence will remain visible in the campaign as the use of the hashtag takes off.?

Esurance created a YouTube video that used the hashtag #EqualDreams to encourage consumers to get in on the conversation through social media. The campaign both highlights the brand?s support of same-sex marriage and creates engagement with other advocates.

The video seeks to generate authentic conversation around the cause by showing children at a wedding describing their own dream weddings. Gradually, the narrative takes in other wedding guests ? many of them lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender ? who elaborate on why they think everyone, regardless of sexual orientation, deserves to have their wedding dreams realized. 

The spot concludes with the disclosure that individual states' same-sex marriage laws notwithstanding, esurance has recognized same-sex couples since 2012.

?It simply means that in order to treat all customers equally, we go beyond what the law requires when we?re able,? esurance said on its blog.

P&G?s campaign, part of a ?Love has no labels? series of ads, seeks to extend the brand?s recent success in leveraging social to gain entry into real-time conversations.

Another brand with a product-oriented take on the decision is Facebook. Facebook is allowing consumers to rainbow-fy their profile pictures in support of LGBT Pride. The simple, yet bold, feature has spread like wildfire with numerous users taking on the simple photo editing feature. 

?The experience is not only mobile optimized but Facebook also took great care to make it as seamless as possible by allowing consumers to rainbow-fy their profile picture with just one click,? Ms. Lowy said. 

?The campaign is another superb example through which a brand can join in on a conversation with an authentic voice by taking the conversation to a place that?s personal to its product.?

One of the best-executed brand campaigns around the legalization of gay marriage has been done by Lush. 

The brand created a bar of soap with the bold characters featuring the hashtag #gayisok. The hashtag has received over 400,000 posts on Instagram. 

Unlike some other featured hashtags that may have been brand-initiated but lose the brand in the process, most of Lush?s posts actually include a picture of the soap bar ? ensuring the branded Lush presence remains intact in the campaign. 

Lush?s home page is currently devoted to the #gayisok campaign. The site provides numerous helpful links to educate consumers about gay inequality. The brand highlights how in 76 countries it is illegal to be gay. 

As Lush encourages consumers to buy the soap, support LGBT charities, and demonstrate support, it also notes that in many countries Lush is not even allowed to sell this simple bar of soap. 

The content ? which includes not just a glitzy piece giving a thumbs-up to the prevailing social buzz, but which also features a bold product undertaking in support of the cause, educational content to show consumers that the battle is not yet over, and numerous actionable follow up pieces of information ? is what has contributed to Lush?s authentic social voice. 

That authentic voice is what consumers respond to. 

The brand also has taken the time to make sure that every step of the process is mobile optimized. 

?Every site, video, and purchase portal within this campaign is fully mobile optimized,? Ms. Lowy said. ?The hashtag is also impossible to miss. 

?That makes it easier for consumers to participate in a unified voice while they are joining in the conversation via social media, since the majority of social media occurs on mobile devices,? she said. 

Efforts to create buzz by jumping onto a passion-filled topics such as gay marriage are not without their risks. Marketers can easily alienate consumers by having a piece of content that simply gives a thumbs-up to what everyone else is saying. 

?If you want something to go viral you need to find a way to make the content personal and authentic,? Ms. Lowy said. ?Additionally, marketers need to consider which devices the content is being consumed on and ensure that they are delivering an optimal experience for those devices.?