Carat has been crowned the world’s leading media agency, according to the latest RECMA ranking.

The Dentsu Aegis Network agency regained top spot in RECMA’s qualitative Network Diagnostics report, overtaking GroupM’s MediaCom, which had assumed top spot in June.

It is the fifth time in the past six reports that Carat has topped the list. It comes on the back of last month’s news that the agency had won Mondelez International’s consolidated North American media operations and global communications business.

Fellow GroupM shop MEC was judged the third-best global media agency, with Omnicom’s OMD in fourth place. See the top 10 below:

1 – Carat

2 – MediaCom

3 – MEC

4 – OMD

5 – Mindshare

6 – ZenithOptimedia

7 – Havas Media Group

8 – Starcom Mediavest Group

9 – UM

10 – PHD

Doug Ray, global president, Carat, said: “We are thrilled to have been named as the number one Global Media Agency in the RECMA Qualitative Evaluation ranking once again.

“This is the most global and most exhaustive report out there; being named as number one is a true indication of the talent in our agency and the quality of work we produce for our clients.”

The RECMA award is based on an assessment of 650 agencies across 42 countries, with evaluation scores against 19 criteria, including new business success, talent and strength and stability of management.