British tennis appoints head of marketing

The Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) has appointed Sara Acworth to head its restructured marketing team.

Acworth, who has been marketing manager at the LTA for the past three years, will be given the title head of marketing. She reports to LTA tennis operations director Rebecca Miskin.

Acworth replaces LTA marketing director Steve Curzon, who will leave to join Adnams Brewery as head of marketing at the end of this month (MW January 15).

Acworth’s role at the LTA will be to encourage participation in the sport, with her first task being to create a strategy for the LTA’s grassroots and juniors’ programmes. Acworth says that the marketing spend for 2004 will be focused on encouraging ten- to 18-year-olds to remain enthusiastic about the game.

Acworth says: “Our future success in making this a great tennis nation depends on attracting juniors to the game. Tennis must compete with all other junior pastimes, from computer games to other sports.”

The LTA is now looking for a commercial director to take over sponsorship and sales responsibilities, which will be separated from pure marketing functions in the wake of Curzon’s departure.