Both were star performers in the overall media market, which grew by 5% to £10.7bn.
Door drop spend grew by 19% and direct mail spend by 17%, leading the field ahead of press spend, which grew by 10% to £2.7bn.
Thomson's figures conflict with Royal Mail's recent assertion that direct mail expenditure dropped 2.1% from 2005 to 2006 to £2.32bn across the whole market.
Thomson attributed much of direct's growth to the enthusiasm of retailers for the medium.
The retail sector spent £367m on direct mail and £491m on door drops during the period. It was narrowly outspent by the finance sector, which invested £498m in direct mail and £365m in door drops.
Thomson noted that the retailer and travel sectors decreased their spend on internet display advertising at the same time as increasing their spend on direct mail and door drops.
However, it does not measure internet search and classified spend, which sheds limited light on the shifts taking place. It is developing a measurement of search spend.
Nor does it measure spend on email marketing, which is expected to overtake direct mail in volume terms at some point this year.
Thomson put the increase in spend on internet display advertising at 9% to £164m.
TV and radio were the only media to register a fall in spend, with TV down 4% to £3.93m and radio down 9% to £305m.
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