Things indicate that NBCUniversal has sold the premium generic domain name Sandbox.com to Sandbox Ad Agency.
Sandbox.com has been owned by NBC for sometime now but this morning I detected that the domain name has transferred out of brand protection registrar MarkMonitor to GoDaddy. Whois records do NOT indicate a change of ownership as NBC remains in whois records.
To note, GoDaddy is a registrar by default that allows one to transfer in a domain name and retain past whois data. This something that shouldn’t be allowed and an issue I have complained about many times on deaf ears.
Sandbox.com is redirecting to SandboxWW.com, which is the ad agency.
Since the domain name is redirecting to SandboxWW.com now and it didn’t in the past (it redirected to RotoWorld.com), along with the registrar transfer, that is enough data for me to state the domain name has been sold!
This is a big domain name upgrade for the ad agency, moving off a pretty bad domain: Brand + acronym (Sandboxww.com) A better domain would at least relate to what they do or offer, like SandboxAgency.com for an example, but that doesn’t matter now.
Since the ad agency markets as Sandbox, the companies logo simply states Sandbox, the very best domain name for them to own and use in all forms, is Sandbox.com! This is a very wise investment for the ad agency (one that likely cost six figures) and one that will help secure the brand, remove confusion and much more!
I did reach out to Sandbox for confirmation but I didn’t not hear back at time of publication. To note, there could be a small chance that the domain is being leased but that isn’t very likely. I will update the story if/when the ad agency replies.
Update: “No reason to comment at this time.” was the reply received from Sandbox Ad Agency.
