Getting attention and bringing new users to the project is great, but what's more important for DAOs is getting active contributors. More than a method for user acquisition, Airdrops should be seen as a method for recruiting contributors. Airdropping a token is the fastest way to hit the masses and rally new people to your cause. Through its $SOS drop, the Open DAO reached ~213k individuals (token holders), from which they successfully convinced ~57k members to join their Discord. It means roughly 1/3 of the people that got airdropped tokens got interested enough in the project to join their Discord and see what's happening there. What's even more impressive is that, from those ~57k members, they convinced ~2.1k to be actively involved in the DAO and help the project grow (data from the average vote on their proposals). Such numbers would be impossible to reach for traditional Web2 projects.

When letting people claim tokens and get "free" money, the community leaders behind the project ensure they align incentives with their community and ensure members will evangelize their community, put in some work, and forever rave about their project. To see the value of the token they received going up, directly correlated to the project's success, new individuals will start working to make the project grow. A token that then goes up in value creates more incentives for new developers and various teams to build for the project, creating a positive feedback loop.

Ultimately, it's the community that will help the project rise from all the noise in the market. Aligning incentives is everything.