I would go one step further (or two):
Set aside a large amount of steem power to upvote content creators that bring new users with the caveat that the new accounts need to be bought. Whoever brings new users get larger votes.
Condition the content creators to keep their vested steem powered up.
I actually wrote a post about that:
https://steempeak.com/steem/@onthewayout/how-to-create-demand-for-steem-using-social-influencers